She is twenty years old and dreams of becoming an actress. Having grown up in France, she returns to Russia to live with her grandfather and enroll at the Moscow National Theatre School. But at the School, as within her family, something resists.
While rehearsing Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Vladimir Putin’s re-election sparks protests in the streets. In the evenings, her grandfather comments on the news. His granddaughter questions him about the past. In response, he sometimes places before her a photograph, a piece of clothing, a coin that once belonged to her great-great-grandfather. “Here, this is yours.” Objects that become the starting point of an investigation.
What secrets lie hidden in the photographs of the green album? Why must one never speak near the front door? To uncover what she is not being told, the narrator must learn to listen to silences and to ask questions—out loud.
In this extraordinary novel, a journey to the furthest reaches of memory, Polina Panassenko delves into the legacy of a country, bringing to light lives shattered by the Gulag and the fear passed down from one generation to the next.
And yet, despite everything, the hope of freedom and justice endures.
