About the book: 2021 / The novel "Embroidery on stolen fabric" is the story of Cinderella from the outback, growing up in family hell, where the father is aggressive and drunk, and the mother cannot protect his daughter and himself. The grandmother, a village healer, imparts to the heroine the secrets of traditional medicine, a healing gift and an unbending character. Fifteen-year-old Valentina is studying in the regional center to become a masseuse and is getting married in Moscow. Unsuccessful marriages and a humiliating affair with a director force her to earn money at a massage table for her own apartment. Valentina attends an esoteric university, takes her mother from the province, adopts a drug addict girl, opens her own office and accidentally ends up on television. In Ostankino, she unexpectedly meets a former minister with whom she fell in love many years ago, and the social elevator rushes Valentina to the very top. Life gets so fast and complicated that Valentina feels like she’s always acting in a movie, playing someone else’s role. The first part of the novel covers the period from the late fifties to the nineties…