Когда уходит человек

At the dawn of the 1930s, a young businessman buys a new house and occupies one of the apartments. An officer, a beautiful actress, two doctors, an antiquary, a Russian emigrant prince, a gymnasium teacher, a notary are moving into others ... Everyone has their own joys and sorrows, their own secrets, their own voice. The voice of the house itself is organically woven into this polyphony, and the fates of people are unexpectedly and strangely intertwined when Soviet tanks enter the small republic, and a year later - fascist ones. In a terrible short year, some residents have joined the ranks of prisoners, others must move to the ghetto; still others manage to save themselves at the cost of risky adventures. Love ties and the connection of past and present are torn; one has to choose not between good and evil, but between greater evil - and lesser evil ... Then the war ends, but another begins - the war of power against its people. The house is inhabited by new tenants - a former front-line soldier, a telegraph operator, old Bolsheviks, a taxi driver, a large family ... A harmonious composition, tenaciously grasped details, subtle psychologism, light irony, an impressionistic style of writing - all this distinguishes the new novel by E. Katishonok.

The history of the house and the history of the people. I love to wander around St. Petersburg, look at houses with history and imagine what kind of people live behind these windows, compose their life and think of who lived here before. This book is like my fantasy on the subject. Very atmospheric, I have never been to the Baltics, but the description of the characters, types is so bright and juicy that it is impossible to remain indifferent and not feel some kind of involvement in these people and their lives. After reading this book, it somehow became very clear (I felt it right with my skin) why the Baltic states never became part of the USSR (de facto).