Riva Evstifeeva's Motherless continues the autobiographical cycle she began with her book Boarding School Stories (2023). The narrative centers on a teenage girl who has escaped the terrible reality of boarding school and is beginning a new home life. The most difficult part of this new life turns out to be communicating with her colorful and difficult mother, who doesn't like to talk about the past. Only gradually do the contours of her own history emerge from family photos and stories - an everyday horror story, as is so often the case with the lives of Soviet women.
Riva Evstifeeva's Motherless continues the autobiographical cycle she began with her book Boarding School Stories (2023). The narrative centers on a teenage girl who has escaped the terrible reality of boarding school and is beginning a new home life. The most difficult part of this new life turns out to be communicating with her colorful and difficult mother, who doesn't like to talk about the past. Only gradually do the contours of her own history emerge from family photos and stories - an everyday horror story, as is so often the case with the lives of Soviet women.