Writers often say that while working on a book, they don't know how their characters will behave, and the characters may move from point A to point B in a completely different way than originally intended. It seems this is exactly what happened with the protagonist of the novella "When We Are Left Alone," fifteen-year-old Yana. That is, the author's general plan was: to pluck a teenage girl from her familiar environment and place her in new circumstances involving a significant downshift. But the character began to write the plot herself.
So, Yana's parents have divorced, and she, her mother, and her younger brother are moving from a small Russian town to Crimea because her grandparents are there. Yana always loved coming here to visit during the holidays, but moving there for good is a completely different matter. Friends, an apartment, and material well-being were left behind in Russia, and in this new reality, her life is shattering into pieces. In Crimea, Yana has plenty of old acquaintances, people want to be friends with her, she has boys falling in love with her, she starts earning her own money, and things aren't actually all that bad for her, but she seems suspended between "then" and "now."
No particularly major events happen here—just little things, but ultimately, these are what make up the existence that determines a teenager's consciousness. The narrative is focused on the inner world of the protagonist; it's only externally that everything is calm, while emotions boil within: reflection on her parents' divorce, attempts to sort through numerous crushes, resentment toward loved ones, anxieties about the future...
Life here is not described as steady progress along a straight line—on the contrary, it is very uneven movement: sometimes things are constantly happening, sometimes events freeze or crawl along, or move in fits and starts. And then suddenly, some kind of "black swan" arrives, and the route veers off in the wrong direction. In general, it's all authentic, a slice of real life that the author seems to be observing along with the reader, simply recording what is happening.
Perhaps the main conflict of this novella lies in the fact that the heroine is almost an adult, but as we know, "almost" doesn't count. This girl already knows and can do a lot and is quite capable of taking responsibility for herself and even for others, but she is still not adult enough to decide where, how, and with whom to live. The main vector is determined for her, and she makes do with what she has and somehow navigates it on her own. Hold on, Yanka, you'll make it! Tamara Mikheeva and I can see that you are the type who wants to be behind the wheel, not held in someone's arms.
(The book was written before 2014, and there is no political subtext in it.)
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