My children

A new novel by Guzel Yakhina, winner of the Bolshaya Kniga and Yasnaya Polyana awards, author of the sensational novel Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes. The novel My Children was conceived by Guzel Yakhina as a story about the tragedy of the German autonomy on the Volga. But once she delved into the topic, the author discovered an extraordinary original world - an amazing "cultural cosmos" that arose, albeit briefly, inside a foreign country. Thus, the action of the novel was transferred to the early Soviet years, its heroes were born, as well as its structure, built on fairy tales that are embedded in each other and generate each other, like ripples on water: a German fairy tale flows into a Soviet fairy tale - the one that "must be made true." "My Children" is a bold and profound, like the Volga, study of the consciousness of a Russian German, in which love for the Big River and the beliefs associated with it - steppe, pagan, wildly naive, with a clear touch of Kalmyk "Asianism", paradoxically coexist with deep faith and darkly beautiful German folklore. This is a story about a separate "little life" looking at Soviet reality through the "mythological glasses" of native folklore and culture, and seeing a Giant where we see a Leader; a Dwarf - where there is a tractor in front of us; beautiful golden-haired Maidens - where the corn fields are earing; the Pied Piper, leading the children away, - in the pioneers and pioneer leader. And, finally, this is a story about how love is capable of overcoming any fear, enduring any time and regime. Guzel Yakhina is a writer and winner of the Yasnaya Polyana and Bolshaya Kniga awards. She was born in Kazan and graduated from the Kazan State Pedagogical Institute and the screenwriting department of the Moscow Film School. Her debut novel Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes was a major event in literature and was awarded leading literary awards. It was published in over 200,000 copies and translated into 30 languages. In 2018, Guzel Yakhina became the author of the Total Dictation. Three texts for different time zones, titled Morning, Day, and Evening, are selected excerpts from the novel My Children.