Once Upon a Time There Lived an Old Man and an Old Woman

The novel “Once There Was an Old Man and an Old Woman,” as aptly put by Maya Kucherskaya, is a story about the fate of a family of Old Believers abandoned at the beginning of the last century in the Baltic region. There they settled, survived wars by the blue sea, endured devastation, losses—and yet survived, saved by their own loyalty to the simplest, but most essential values.

“…This story grabs you from the first page and doesn’t let you go until the very end. Living, sometimes comical, sometimes tragic characters, a ‘tasty’ way of speaking, funny and exact ‘family sayings,’ a touching love and a great Russian patience—everything takes hold of the heart at once. Beautiful language. Piercing clarity of being. The continuity of a lineage and memory—everything that the true Reader longs for right now…” (Dina Rubina).