"A short book that will leave a deep mark on your heart."

-The Boston Bibliophile

"Bronsky instinctively understands that the way to a reader's heart is through great characters."-Library Journal

Russian government warnings about radiation levels in her hometown in the Ukraine be damned! Baba Dunja is going home. And, one-by-one, her former neighbors decide to join her. With strangely misshapen fruits to spare and the nuclear contaminated town largely to themselves, they have everything they need to live out their remaining years at home and in peace. Life is beautiful, or at least tolerable. That is, until one day a stranger turns up in the village with a young girl in tow who is clearly being used as a pawn in some cruel game.

For the prodigiously talented Alina Bronsky, this is a return to the iron-willed older female protagonist that she made famous with her unforgettable Russian matriarch Rosa Achmetowna, from The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine. Baba Dunja is a gentler, kinder, funnier but no less stubborn version of Rosa. This is a touching story about right standing up to might, about resilience, and about the wisdom of old-age.

"Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion."-Vogue

"With quiet understatement, Bronsky offers us a glimpse of life in the radioactive abyss."-Kirkus Reviews