At the end of her life, Nora begins to resemble Tusya. She wears Tusya’s large rings on her bony fingers, and teaches theater to aspiring young artists.
Vitya receives the Major Prize, which he fully deserves, and which Grisha secretly dreamed about.
At the end of the 2030s, Grisha dies, an old, old man, in Jerusalem. At his grave, his innumerable children and grandchildren place a slab on which, according to his will, is carved not his name, but a URL: “www…” If the curious follow the link, they can read an ecstatic missive about the Divine Text, addressed to Grisha’s heirs and at the same time to all humanity. His text is as long and convoluted as it is remarkable.
Yurik, like his great-grandfather Jacob, is immersed in music. Not the clarinet, not the piano, not the guitar—he is trying to hear the music that pours through the cosmos. And it is not in the least important whether he became a professional composer, or remained that same small boy, who used to say:
“Mama, remember how I sang in your tummy?”
Author’s Note
Excerpts from letters in my family archives and excerpts from the file of Jacob Ulitsky have been included in this story. (KGB Archive No. 2160)
Acknowledgments
With thanks to my family and friends
This book would never have been written without the help and support of my family. To my husband, Andrei Krasulin—thank you for your patience and indulgence; to my sons Alyosha and, especially, Petya Evgeniev—thank you for all kinds of support, including technological; to my cousin, Olga Bulgakova—thank you for preserving the ambience of our family, of which almost no one remains.
To my friends—Nikita Shklovsky, who devoted so much time to conversation and discussion of the biological questions the book touches on; and Vladimir Andreevich Uspensky, who enlightened me in the parts of the book concerning mathematics. You are in large part coauthors of this book.
Special thanks to Katya Gordeeva for her brilliant participation and contribution—while I was giving birth to this book, she gave birth to her son Jacob, which lent authenticity to the whole of this partially invented story.
Thank you to my dear friends Lika Nutkevich, Ira Shchipacheva, Lyuba Grivorieva, and Tanya Gorina, for their care, patience, and support when my spirits fell and I came close to despair; and to Dianochka, who helps me in that department of life which is particularly difficult for me.
Thank you to my first readers and editors: the publisher Elena Shubina; Elena Kostioukovitch; Yulia Dobrovolskaya; and Sasha Klimin (he, more than anyone, gave his all and sweated over every page of the book!). I thank all those friends who sheared off sizable chunks of the text; to Dima Bavilsky, who opened my eyes to the use of possessive pronouns and a few obtrusive verbs; to Ira Uvarova and Alyona Zaitseva for sharing their expertise on theater; to Misha Golubovsky for scientific consultation. Thank you to my dear Alexanders, who have accompanied me throughout my life: Alexander Khelemsky, who explained things to me that I had spent my whole life trying to understand, with varying results; and Alexander Gorin, who advised me on questions of computer programming. Because of both of them, I now know a bit more than I did before I began. To Bondarev and Smolyansky, for their meticulousness; Okun, for his support at a critical moment; Varshavsky, for his indulgence; and Borisov, who prayed I would survive.
And to all the equally dear friends who helped me by not hindering me …
I thank all those whom I’ve forgotten to mention in these notes. In truth, I should go through my alphabetical index file and thank all my beloved friends from all the stages and ages in my life, some of whom are already gone …
This would be fitting, but there would be no end to it.
And one more, very special, expression of thanks. When I had already finished this book, my dear friend Katya Genieva died. I was able to say goodbye to her, and the dignity, intelligence, and grace of her leavetaking reconciled me to the necessity of parting from this remarkable, wonderful, and at times terribly difficult world we still live in.
I thank you all.
ALSO BY LUDMILA ULITSKAYA
The Big Green Tent
Daniel Stein, Interpreter
The Kukotsky Enigma
The Funeral Party
Medea and Her Children
Sonechka
A Note About the Author
Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia’s most popular and renowned literary figures. A former scientist and the director of Moscow’s Hebrew Repertory Theater, she is the author of more than a dozen works of fiction, including The Big Green Tent; several tales for children; and plays that have been staged by a number of theaters in Russia and Germany. She has won the Russian Booker Prize and twice won Russia’s Big Book Prize, and has been nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. You can sign up for email updates here.
A Note About the Translator
Polly Gannon is the director of cultural studies at the New York–St. Petersburg Institute of Linguistics, Cognition and Culture. She holds a Ph.D. in Russian literature from Cornell University. She lives, teaches, and translates in St. Petersburg, Russia. You can sign up for email updates here.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
Family Tree
1. The Willow Chest (1975)
2. The Watchmaker’s Shop on Mariinsko-Blagoveshchenskaya Street (1905–1907)
3. From the Willow Chest: The Diary of Jacob Ossetsky (1910)
4. Closing Chekhov (1974)
5. A New Project (1974)
6. Classmates (1955–1963)
7. From the Willow Chest: The Diary of Jacob Ossetsky (1911)
8. The Garden of Magnitudes (1958–1974)
9. Admirers (1975–1976)
10. A Froebel Miss (1907–1910)
11. A Letter from Mikhail Kerns to His Sister, Marusya (1910)
12. One-of-a-Kind Yurik: Yahoos and Houyhnhnms (1976–1981)
13. A Major Year (1911)
14. A Female Line (1975–1980)
15. Unaccommodated Man (1980–1981)
16. A Secret Marriage (1911)
17. From the Willow Chest: Jacob’s Notebook (1911)
18. Marusya’s Letters (December 1911)
19. First Grade: Fingernails (1982)
20. From the Willow Chest: Jacob’s Letter to Marusya: Volunteer Ossetsky (1911–1912)
21. A Happy Year (1985)
22. From the Willow Chest: Letters from and to the Urals (October 1912–May 1913)
23. A New Direction (1976–1982)
24. Carmen (1985)
25. The Diamond Door (1986)
26. From the Willow Chest: The Correspondence of Jacob and Marusya (May 1913–January 1914)
27. Nora in America: Visiting Vitya and Martha (1987)
28. The Left Hand (1988–1989)
29. The Birth of Genrikh (1916)
30. Endings (1988–1989)
31. A Boat to the Other Shore (1988–1991)
32. From the Willow Chest: Family Correspondence (1916)
33. Kiev–Moscow (1917–1925)
34. Yurik in America (1991–2000)
35. Letters from Marusya to Jacob: Sudak (July–August 1925)