Zelman's Boot. Olena Stiazkina

The novel by historian and writer Olena Stiazkina, “Zelman’s Boots,” is a complete story about family duels, in which the one who is closer to death often wins.
This is a deep, ironic, and at the same time tender saga of a man who, wandering through the labyrinths of memory, tries to gather his relatives — living and dead, all the decades he has lived, images, and voices — into a single internal theater.
The heroes of the novel are both real people and cardboard men whom the narrator cuts out of the past, paints with cheap paints, places in a frame, and sets in motion: Solomon, Khrystyna Tymofiivna, Dokiia, Bezrukyi, Anna…
This is a novel about how war is intertwined with childhood, and forgotten family stories suddenly demand to be heard. About how easy it is not to have time to ask. And how difficult it is to live when there are no more answers.
“I envy those who have the dots. The time, the strength, the opportunity to place them in the biographies of their elders. Not with a generous hand, but with one that keeps a little for myself. Honestly, I envy.”
This confession is the heart of the book.