Riva Evstifeeva's new book continues the autobiographical series begun with "Boarding School Stories" (Éditions Tourgueneff, 2023). Now the story centers on a teenage girl who has escaped the terrifying reality of boarding school. A new, home-based life begins. And the most difficult part of this new life turns out to be communicating with her mother. Her mother, a vibrant and difficult person, doesn't like to talk about the past. And only gradually, through family photographs and stories, do the contours of her own story emerge—ordinary in its nightmare, as the stories of Soviet women often were.