The novel, written in German by a native of Kyiv, Russian-speaking writer Katya Petrovskaya, caused a wide resonance and was awarded many times, in particular, for the fact that the author found a way to describe the indescribable events of the last century (including war, the Holocaust and Babi Yar) as events in family history and lovingly weaved everything she knew about her ancestors into a mesmerizing narrative fabric. This novel refers to the writing style of V. G. Sebald, in whose prose, according to the researcher, “the reflected gaze - the reciprocal gaze of the past - recreates the beholder” (M. Malikova). The novel was awarded the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, the Strega Europeo Prize, and the Literary Prize the city of Aalen Schubart, the Ernst Toller Prize and the Aspekte Literary Prize. The book has been translated into twenty languages.