About the book: 2010 / Dina Rubina accomplished the impossible - she combined three different genres: a fascinating and at the same time almost gothic novel about dolls and puppeteers, pulling together the poles of history and art; a family detective story and a psychological drama, traced from vivid childhood and youth memories to mature gray hair. Passions “tear” the heroes here too. Man and doll, puppeteer and rebellious doll, man as a doll - in the hands of fate, in the hands of the Creator, in subordination to family heredity - this deep and multidimensional metaphor is turned by the author in a variety of facets, without condescending to straightforward analogies. The skill of literary “painting” Rubina, landscapes and portraits, as always, are at their best: as if you are eating chunks of fragrant, delicious air and are choking with pleasure.