They live in Kyiv or Moscow. One is beginning a promising career as an architect, another dreams of becoming a fashion influencer, while yet another plans to take her son to Israel in the hope of curing his autism.
They are rebellious or obedient, fearless or cowardly, corrupt or upright, cynical or filled with ideals—but all subject to the inexorable. Unless…? For it is literature, and literature alone, that allows us to explore two scenarios: what happened—when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. But also what did not happen: what if the invasion had never taken place?
It is truly dizzying to follow the same characters, first in peace and then in war, and to measure what our lives endure as a result of decisions beyond our control.
A polyphonic novel with a structure unique in its kind, where fiction and reality cast a stark but revealing light on our condition.