To Live

Every Maria Metlitskaya book is an event. Readers anticipate it, devour it, put it on a shelf—and then pull it out again in difficult moments. Because Metlitskaya, like no one else, convinces you that as long as we’re alive, everything can be fixed. So there just aren’t reasons for тоска and grief.

Life can’t be perfectly smooth. You can’t win at everything, please everyone, and love everyone. And even if they tell you that such people exist, don’t believe it.

Life will surely take the chance to give you a taste of reality—exactly when it seems everything is finally arranged, everything is going the right way. The heroes of this book have proved it many times: life has beaten them, more than once. In the most unexpected moments. Right in the face. But do you know who is truly happy? The one who knows that no matter what, you have to keep living. Just living. Whatever happens.

And when, again and again, failure, injustice, or some unpleasant trouble happens—when it seems everything is collapsing—you just have to tell yourself: “We’re going to live on.” And live.