Kogda mama - eto ty [When Mom is You]

In this book you will find everything for which you appreciate Masha Traub: an easy style, an instant transition from comic to tragic, heroes who are both similar to your friends and family, and somehow subtly different from all other people. ‘When a mother is you,’ which the author herself defines as ‘a collection of small stories about big feelings,’ is densely populated with characters: here is a little girl who does not understand the difference between hard and soft signs, here is a cook from a pioneer camp whose heart has long been covered with scabs; here is a girl from a nomenklatura family, whom her parents sent to the camp ‘for socialization,’ and her friend, whom the same parents chose to play the role of a hanger-on.