Vladimir Makanin’s new novel “Two Sisters and Kandinsky” is an unusual novel; a vivid testimony of our time and at the same time a novel-parable on the theme of how “the executioner will embrace the victim.” The theme is eternal, one of the most eternal, and, of course, the acute irrevocable question of how this happens?.. How and in what way they “they will embrace,” how exactly?.. Answering this question, Makanin created a heartfelt, very “Chekhovian” text. But on the other hand, we have before us a very relevant novel-warning. Enough time has passed since the events described by the author, but what has changed? And was everything as we used to remember?.. There are, as always, no direct answers to such questions. Let's wait and see.

The novel was published in the magazine “New World”, No. 4 for 2011.