Синяя кровь

Ida Zmoiro - the heroine of Buyda's new novel "Blue Blood" - is a wonderful artistic double of the real actress of the Soviet cinema of the forties of the last century, Valentina Karavaeva. Very quickly becoming a star, Karavaeva just as quickly burns out at the zenith of glory. The Stalin Prize, the rapid rise of a career, invitations to the productions of leading European theaters, marriage to the English attache George Chapman - and then a monstrous car accident that forever disfigured the beauty's face. Divorce, return to the Union, old age in the new, post-perestroika Russia. Buyda turns a real tragic fate into a beautiful legend. The myth created around Karavaeva and her time fascinates and captivates. And the literary skill with which the novel is written is unlikely to leave indifferent even the most sophisticated connoisseurs of the word.