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“My wife, gentlemen, is a living monument to selflessness and a complete lack of ambition,” Ruslan announced with theatrical flair, swirling cognac in his wide-bowled glass while admiring his own reflection in the amber liquid. “I move millions, I build residential complexes, and Tanya… well, Tanya specializes in bedpans and IV drips at a district … Read more

“Alina, do you even hear yourself? It’s a юбилей — Mom’s sixtieth! What do you mean, ‘we’ll just do something small’?” Vadim flung the kitchen towel onto the table and stared at me as if I had suggested dropping his beloved mother off at a nursing home. “At least a hundred people. Relatives from Saratov, … Read more

“Are you even listening to yourselves? Buy an apartment? For Sveta?” I set my coffee cup down on the table as slowly as I could, while a cold, deliberate fury began to boil inside me. My mother-in-law, Antonina Petrovna, did not so much as blink. She was lounging in my hanging cocoon chair, swaying lazily … Read more

Katya called me on a Saturday morning, her voice trembling. “Mom… our apartment got flooded. The neighbors upstairs burst a pipe, and water poured in all night. The furniture is soaked, the wallpaper is peeling off. The building management says the repairs will take at least a week. Can I stay with you just for … Read more

I lifted my glass of champagne and smiled at the two hundred guests gathered for my in-laws’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. Sasha stood beside me, pale as chalk, while his mother — the iron-willed Valentina Petrovna herself — was only just beginning to understand what had happened. “To the two of you, my dears,” I said … Read more

Part I. The Visit from the Lady with the Little Dog The workshop smelled of old wood, varnish, and faintly of time itself. Irina carefully lifted a tiny spring from a nineteenth-century music box with her tweezers. Restoring antique mechanisms required infernal patience and the precision of a surgeon. One wrong move, and a delicate … Read more

Part 1: A Feast in a Time of Plague The Golden Horseshoe restaurant buzzed like a disturbed beehive. The smell of roasted meat mixed with sweet perfume and cheap tobacco, creating a heavy, suffocating haze. Around a long table crowded with appetizers and bottles sat a loud, boisterous company. By the standards of everyone present, … Read more

“Step away from that door! Have you completely lost your mind over those childish drawings?” Makar yanked hard on the bathroom handle, but it would not move. “My uncle just got off the road and needs a shower, and in there you’ve got that… parasite of yours with her whole litter!” “Your relatives are always … Read more

Part 1. Hospitality That Felt Like an Occupation “Do you really not understand, or are you pretending?” Anton snapped the lock on his travel bag shut with a sound like a rope being cut — the very rope keeping their marriage from sinking. “Zoya came here to rest. She needs proper sleep. Her back is … Read more

Part 1: A Crack in the Smalti “You do realize this isn’t some random whim. It’s biology,” the man said evenly, in the same cool, professional tone he usually used when scolding suppliers over spoiled milk. “A man is supposed to have a branch of the family tree. A future. And all we have is … Read more