"Boarding School Stories" is an autobiographical book—as far as memory allows. It's set in a Moscow boarding school in the early 1990s, where children study amid poverty and violence, but also embrace exciting adventures and encounters with extraordinary people. The protagonist, a neglected but bookish elementary school student, meets unexpected helpers along the way and finds a path that leads him beyond the walls of the boarding school.

Riva Evstifeeva recounts her childhood in Russia during perestroika, a time of poverty, violence, and a yearning for freedom. The author is currently a professor of Russian at the University of Strasbourg.