Зимний сад: роман

Meredit i Nina Uitson - sestry, no trudno naĭti zhenshchin bolee nepokhozhikh. Odna - domosedka, vsegda schitavshai͡a, chto net luchsheĭ sudʹby, chem vyĭti zamuzh, rastitʹ deteĭ i upravli͡atʹ semeĭnym i͡ablonevym pitomnikom. Drugai͡a mechtala o stranstvii͡akh, stala fotoreporterom, osveshchai͡ushchim gumanitarnye katastrofy, i motaetsi͡a po vsemu miru, izbegai͡a razgovorov o budushchem i semʹe. Boleznʹ ott͡sa svodit sester vmeste v roditelʹskom dome. Ot materi s russkimi korni͡ami oni nikogda ne videli nichego, krome ledi͡anogo neodobrenii͡a, i dazhe seĭchas Ani͡a ne pytaetsi͡a sblizitʹsi͡a s docheri͡ami, proi͡avli͡ai͡a khorosho znakomui͡u im otstranennostʹ. V detstve tolʹko odno obʺedini͡alo ikh s materʹi͡u: skazka pro bednui͡u devushku i print͡sa, kotorui͡u ta rasskazyvala devochkam na nochʹ. Ponimai͡a, chto umiraet, otet͡s prosit dochereĭ doslushatʹ skazku - do samogo kont͡sa. Tak nachinaetsi͡a puteshestvie dvukh zhenshchin v proshloe materi, v ee zhiznʹ v blokadnom Leningrade, v strashnyĭ i krasivyĭ ledi͡anoĭ mir.

Meredith and Nina Whitson are sisters, but it's hard to find women more dissimilar. One is a stay-at-home mom who has always believed that there is no better fate than to get married, raise children and manage a family apple nursery. Another dreamed of traveling, became a photojournalist covering humanitarian disasters, and travels around the world, avoiding conversations about the future and family. The father's illness brings the sisters together in their parents' house. They have never seen anything but icy disapproval from a mother with Russian roots, and even now Anya does not try to get closer to her daughters, showing the detachment they are well familiar with. As a child, only one thing united them with their mother: a fairy tale about a poor girl and a prince, which she told the girls at night. Realizing that he is dying, the father asks his daughters to listen to the tale - to the very end. So begins the journey of two women into the mother's past, into her life in besieged Leningrad, into a terrible and beautiful icy world.