A thrilling novel. This may be the first (or at least one of the first) attempts to depict today's war through the language of fiction. It's a book about war, self-justification, and choice.

The story begins in Washington, then memory takes the protagonist back to the summer of 1994 in Moscow. Then it moves to Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, back to Moscow, and finally Mariupol. Mariupol in April of twenty-two.

Ksenia Kirillova is a journalist, poet, prose writer, and expert at leading American analytical centers. For several years, she has been professionally analyzing political and social processes in contemporary Europe and Russia, including the war in Ukraine.