Perevernutaya Zvezda (The Star Reversed)

Eta kniga – istoriya detstva, otrochestva i yunosti ukrainskogo mal'chika, v 30-40-ye gody proshlogo veka. I odnovremenno eto istoriya odnoy sem'i, vpletennaya v istoriyu ogromnoy strany I obrechennaya na krestnuyu muku svoyey epokhi. Glavnyy geroy s malykh let znakomitsya so smert'yu, vladychestvuyushchey nad yego stranoy, i unosyashchey zhizni rodnykh, sosedey i druzey. V strane svirepstvuyet NKVD, zhiteli nakhodyatsya v postoyannom strakhe. Mal'chik bystro ponimayet, chto nel'zya vyrazhat' real'nyye mysli vslukh. Yedinstvennyy, s kem on mozhet podelit'sya vsem, eto yego zakadychnyy drug. Vnutrenne mal'chik rezko protestuyet protiv toy deystvitel'nosti, v kotoruyu zaklyuchon. Neozhidanno dlya nego samogo, yego perezhivaniya vypleskivayutsya v stikhi. Znakomyas' s drugimi poeticheskimi proizvedeniyami i mnogo chitaya, on zadumyvayetsya o gor'koy sud'be Ukrainy, o lyubvi k rodnomu krayu i rodnomu yazyku, kotoryye vsyacheski unichtozhayutsya Sovetskoy vlast'yu. Poeziya glavnogo geroya kardinal'no raznitsya s temi propagandistskimi stikhami, chto pechatayut v sovetskikh izdaniyakh. On ponimayet, chto nikogda ne smozhet proiznesti vslukh ni odno iz svoikh tvoreniy. I nikogda ne ispolnitsya yego prizvaniye - byt' poetom. Togda on vybirayet sebe druguyu mechtu, boleye prizemlennuyu, no i yey pokhozhe ne suzhdeno ispolnit'sya. Nedavniye priyateli po igram vo dvore, podrastaya, stanovyatsya po raznyye storony dobra i zla, a zhizn' podkidyvayet im vso novyye ispytaniya. Vmeste so svoimi sosedyami, glavnyy geroy okazyvayetsya v samom tsentre nemetskoy okkupatsii 1941-1943 godov. Perezhiv nashestviye nemtsev, gorod snova okazyvayetsya vo vlasti NKVD, i opyat' prodolzhayetsya begstvo ot smerti. Eto povestvovaniye o chudesnom stanovlenii odnoy dushi, i odnovremenno – khroniki strashnogo, chudovishchnogo vremeni, vremeni, kogda zhizn' chelovecheskaya ne znachit nichego. This novel is a story of the childhood, adolescence and youth of a Ukrainian boy in the 1930s – 1940s. At the same time this is the story of a family entwined with the history of a vast country and the history of many other families doomed to bear the cross of their era. At an early age, the protagonist, like most of his peers, gets acquainted with the death that is dominating his country, and taking the lives of his family, neighbors, and friends. The NKVD (the government's secret-police organization) is rampant in the country and citizens live in constant fear. The boy quickly learns that he cannot express real thoughts out loud. The only person with whom he can share everything is his best friend. The boy loves the nature of his native land but his inner being sharply protests the reality in which he feels stuck. He surprises himself when his experiences develop into poetry. While getting acquainted with other poetic works and reading a lot, the boy reflects on the bitter fate of Ukraine and his love for his native land and language which are being annihilated by the Soviet government. The poetry of the protagonist is fundamentally different from the propaganda verses that are being printed in Soviet publications. He realizes that he will never be able to publish or share his creations with others and that his calling - to be a poet - will never come to fruition. After that, he chooses another dream, more mundane, but it seems that will not become his reality either. As his childhood friends grow up they turn out to embody the extremes of good and evil, and life continues to throw everyone greater trials. Together with his neighbors, the boy finds himself in the epicenter of the German occupation during the WW2. Having survived the invasion of the Germans, the city ends up once more under the control of the government's secret-police, and the escape from death continues. This story is about the miraculous formation of one soul, and at the same time - a chronicle of a terrible, monstrous time, a time when human life is burned by the fire of the imperial era.