![]() ![]() When Valerka disappears, Mitya sets out to discover what happened, venturing into the world of street people, where he’s accepted for the first time by peers. As a young man, Mitya befriends Valerka, a homeless man who doesn’t bat an eye at seeing Mitya dressed as a woman. A few years later, a cousin, Vovka, comes to live with them and sexually abuses Mitya. At five, Mitya secretly puts on his grandmother’s makeup, and as he grows up, he continues to buck the strict gender conventions of 1990s Moscow. ![]() As Mitya’s life unfolds, a parallel fantasy about Koschei is interspersed as both characters navigate their own versions of heaven and hell. At two, Mitya swallows his grandmother’s sewing needle, a situation similar to a classic Russian folktale, Koschei the Deathless, who hid a so-called “death needle” to obtain immortality. Mitya Noskov, born in 1986, grows up with his pedestrian parents and crafty grandmother, the latter keeping a stash of candy, caviar, and liquor for bribing various officials. ![]() Kazbek debuts with a lovely bildungsroman set during and after the downfall of the U.S.S.R. ![]()
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