The manuscript found on the mezzanine will catch Kirill's eye. “Mortal Kombat” is what the name is? Are they really stories? “Read,” Evgenia Ovchinnikova sighs after thinking a little, “they are about my childhood in the nineties.” And Kirill will immediately fall into these stories, just as we hope you will too. The girl Zhenya sells Christmas trees and sets off in pursuit of a thief who has sneaked into the market. Catches a cow that has run away from the village. He crosses his fingers that the house lights don't turn off the very moment Mortal Kombat starts on TV. A collection of stories about the past is framed by a modern story - how a nephew came to stay with the author. That girl Zhenya, who was so eagerly hunting for the two hundred and fortieth insert from Turbo chewing gum, would hardly have found a common language with Kirill! And yet, despite the difference in generation, they are somehow similar... Reminiscent of funny tales, wise parables, the stories balance between adult and teenage literature. The first will recognize in the town of Kokchetav their home yard a quarter of a century ago, the second will experience joy, finding much in common with their life. And a timid thought: “Were my parents also such children?” – will certainly visit those born in the 21st century. Adults will seem, if only a little, but still closer, more understandable - just like the era that is now turning into literature. Evgenia Ovchinnikova (born in 1983) began writing after studying at the literary workshop of Andrei Astvatsaturov and Dmitry Orekhov - and she instantly managed to develop his own restrained, slightly ironic style. She twice became a finalist in the All-Russian Book Competition, including with the manuscript “Mortal Kombat and Other 90s.”