Those Who Weren’t There

 Anna Zenkova                       Illustrated by Olga Prankevitch 208 p.

Literary discovery 2020, Anna is awarded this year 2024 by a White Raven by the International Youth Library Munich. 

Congratulations Anna ! 

“Those who weren’t there”, is about childhood, parenthood and consequences of our actions that we cannot undo, but have to live with. The voices of the characters —children, teenagers, adults, elderly — sound very sincere and true. They tell us stories of their pain, their hopes, their desires… Everybody haspast that hurts. But it’s a personal decision — to run away from it or to accept it in order to move on. What will they choose? Could they forgive themselves? And will they find a home they all dream of ?

Tosya, or Taisiya Pavlovna as she calls herself, doesn’t remember her childhood well. Petrovich doesn’t remember his own life. Lesya wants to run away from the past as far as possible. All three of them find themselves on an island in the middle of the sea. Is it a social experiment or just a trick of fate?  Why are they so different yet so close?
 

Graduated economist and mother of three, Anna Zenkova (born1984) in three years of her active literary career has already won twice the prestigious Krapivin International Prize. Anna carefully listens to what teens say and observes the way they speak, that’s why her prose, written from a kid’s perspective, strikes by its exceptional verisimilitude. She doesn’t divide characters into good and bad ones: in her books, there is always room for circumstances and personal choice.

llustrated by Olga Prankevitch

tags: growing-up, rest-home, orphans, first love, war