Sadness and joy, hopelessness and hope alternate in the novels, novellas and short stories of Masha Traub, who brilliantly debuted in 2007 with the heartfelt novel "Pack up, we're Leaving." After that, there were many more books, homerically funny and painfully sad. Feature films have been made based on some of them — "Diary of a First—Grader's Mother" and "A House in the South".The collection "Crisis of Someone else's Age" includes stories about life and death, about miracles, about relatives who never became close, and about strangers who became relatives. In this touching and honest prose, there is a place for irony, subtle observations and the very details of everyday life in which you learn your story.All the characters in this collection of short stories and sketches are going through one crisis or another. Everyone copes in their own way — someone takes a vow of silence, other characters believe that they are fighting their own death in an arm wrestling match. This book contains not only observations of modern life, but also stories that could be considered mystical. "I'll breed this trouble on beans," my grandmother used to say when she wanted to calm me down. In the village where I grew up, they used to tell fortunes on beans. And if it's mysticism, it's very kind. Read more…