The Enviable Feeling of Vera Stenina

The novel “Vera Stenina’s Enviable Feeling” is a hymn to art and beauty.

Anna Matveeva is the author of the bestseller “The Dyatlov Pass,” story collections “Wait, I’ll Die—and I’ll Come Back” (shortlisted for the “Bolshaya Kniga” award), and “The Nines of the Nineties” (longlisted for the “National Bestseller” award). A finalist of the “Ivan Petrovich Belkin Prize,” winner of the “Lo Stellato” prize (Italy). Her works have been translated into English, French, and Italian.

In her new novel “Vera Stenina’s Enviable Feeling,” Matveeva tells the story of a friendship—turned into rivalry—between women. Vera, an art historian and a single mother, is constantly jealous of her friend Yulka. Yulka is always lucky and is never jealous—though she might be, because Vera has a unique gift: she feels paintings in a special way. She “talks” with portraits, senses the scent of painted flowers, and hears the music performed by the artists depicted in the canvases…

The novel is multi-layered: an anatomy of envy, a blend of Western European tradition with Russian mentality, a light detective twist, and—told in full voice—a hymn to art and beauty.