This is a book, in which Maria Stepanova wrote about her experience of looking for her roots.

This book connects the theme of a family history with an unusual format: at Amazon it is presented as an essay, which it actually is, but in Russian it was named "Romance", which gives quite different connotations in relation to more dry and academic "essay". The format included a journey diary, written from the first person; academical essay with references; actual letters. How the author combined all of them in one work and avoided the book being separated into different formats?

This book touches a broad theme of relations/ connections within the family (especially the expanded one); how internet connects people from different countries and makes it possible to find a distant relative in the other country; the world history, WWII, Holocaust.

#family #history #memory #autofiction