Another destiny is somewhere nearby

To tell - not to tell, to tell - not to tell?.

It is difficult to write about this book without spoilers. There is only one storyline, but a huge number of events, to retell which would mean depriving readers of intrigue. In my son’s and my opinion, there’s already a lot of unnecessary stuff in the publisher’s annotation, so I won’t go deeper into the plot - I’ll write about the spirit of this novel (in terms of length, it’s a novel, not a story - enough for a week of reading).

So, as the publishing house already told us anyway, seventh-grader Matvey fell out of his probability and ended up in another, having received a fantastic opportunity to compare two lives: with himself and without himself. He saw how his absence or presence affected his loved ones and classmates.

This book is about the fact that we choose life for ourselves. Of course, sometimes unforeseen circumstances occur, no one can control everything, but our will and mind, attitude to life play by no means a secondary role. Chance and the free choice of a person go hand in hand and together weave the canvas of fate. Only we decide for ourselves whether to let something new into life or to preserve it in Groundhog Day, as long as no one touches it. It’s up to us whether to spend our days within four walls, staring at a screen, or to communicate with people and take the initiative into our own hands.

This book is also about the interconnection of events in human life. Together with the hero, readers will see that life's sharp turns do not always lead to bad consequences, and any events can later respond in the most unexpected - sometimes wonderful - way. For example, ending up in a hospital is nothing good, it would seem, but, on the other hand, what if this accident brings you together with the right people who will change your life for the better? You never know where the curve will lead. Yes, and speaking of people. Teenagers often feel that there are only fools and losers around them, “only me in a white coat” - so a collision with the harsh reality of others can be harsh, but it has a therapeutic effect.

And I’ll sum it up. This is a complex story with a simple moral: you need to try to do what depends on you, be kinder to people and love life.

The book is very interesting and keeps you in suspense from beginning to end, although the works of Victoria Lederman about trapped children are still too similar to each other. If you have already read “Ma(y)ya’s Calendar”, “Geshka’s Pet”, “Svetlikov Tuchkins”, then “The Theory of Improbabilities” will strongly remind you of them.