The Choice of Water

8 hrs. 24 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Gala Uzryutova

Narrator Varvara Sapova

Description

The heroine of the novel “The Choice of Water,” Kira, belongs to the generation of 35-year-old runaways—escaping from the past, from reality, and from themselves—and traveling from country to country just not to return home. The Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon and the Pacific in Vladivostok, the Grand Canal in Venice and the fjords of Norway, the Baltic Sea in Latvia and the North Sea in Holland, the rivers of Germany, England, and Spain—Kira has visited 24 countries with a backpack full of animal bones, fish, and birds.

…But no water accepted them. In yet another attempt to perform a ritual and give the bones to water—at Lake Bohinj in Slovenia—Kira, going around the lake in a circle, untangles the consequences of a childhood trauma, continues arguing with her father, whose death she still couldn’t accept, rethinks the events of her past life, and walks in the footsteps of her kind, which grew up on the Volga.

“This book is an anthology of water. There are so many lakes, rivers, and seas here. This book is about what wakes you up before dawn. Sound? Text? Fate? This book is about the fact that someone is always following you. ‘If I had been collecting all the gnawed bones since childhood into a bag, I wouldn’t have been able to carry it on my shoulders—a whole herd of fish, beasts, and birds.’ Your personal herd—sins or love, little days of life—follows you. This book is about how light shakes off sound. About the fact that white is frozen green. About the fact that life is inevitable.” Dmitry Vodennikov