Moscow, the second half of the 1980s: queues, rallies, cooperatives, glasnost. The story centers on five children living in the Southwest district of Moscow and their parents—researchers, engineers, a philologist, a member of the nomenklatura, and a local pediatrician. While the boys and girls attend music school, read voraciously, fall in love, get sick, rebel, make and lose friends, in just a few years the country changes beyond recognition. The familiar world collapses, and the heroes are forced to build a new one.
Maria Danilova's new novel is a warm, nostalgic story about growing up during perestroika, about awakening, hope, overcoming, and finding freedom.