What to read: museum of failures, death in Africa, and a dystopia about twin sisters

Trish Umrigar. “Museum of failures," Belle Lettres (translated from English by Yulia Zmeeva, 436 pp., 16+)

Trish Umrigar is an Indian-American writer and journalist, originally from Bombay. She moved to the United States at 21, earned a master's degree and a PhD in English literature, and currently teaches at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Umrigar writes for major American publications and is known as the author of nine novels, including “Honor” — a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. “Museum of Failures” continues her interest in migration, cultural identity, and family ties. The impetus for the book came from the film “The Farewell” (2019), which depicted the experience of living between two countries — China and the United States. In the novel, this motif unfolds through the character of Remy Wadia, a Parsi — a member of a small Zoroastrian religious community, whose worldwide population does not exceed 100,000. The depiction of this milieu — its rituals, clothing, cuisine — is an important part of the narrative.

The plot begins with Remy's arrival in Bombay. He lives in the United States, runs a successful advertising business, and his wife is an American pediatrician. The couple plans to adopt a child from India. But their plans fall apart: the pregnant girl ready to give up her baby changes her mind. Concurrently, the hero learns that his mother, Shirin, is in the hospital, unresponsive and refusing food. Remy stays to care for her and, in the process, uncovers terrible family secrets. A random photograph sets off a chain of events: the images of an ideal father and a hostile mother begin to crumble.

The novel is built around several lines: the migrant experience, the rupture between two countries, childhood trauma, and the consequences of family secrets. Remy lives between America and India and feels a full sense of belonging to neither. This internal rift manifests in his perception of Bombay as a “museum of failures” — a space of unfulfilled expectations. As the plot unfolds, this definition shifts in meaning, becoming a universal metaphor: any place can be such a museum of failures if you collect people's disappointments there.

Compositionally, the novel is divided into two parts. The first establishes the context and may feel overloaded with the hero's internal monologues. In the second part, fragments of the past come together into a coherent picture, and the narrative becomes more focused. A crucial function is served by the shift in perspective when Shirin herself gets a voice and tells her version of events. Additionally, the book is rich with details of daily life in Bombay: smells, sounds, the city's chaos, social norms, and societal pressure. The story of the pregnant girl reveals the theme of stigma and social pressure on Indian women. Umrigar seamlessly incorporates descriptions of religious rituals, specifically visiting a temple. It is there that Remy reconciles with his identity and finds a sense of belonging that he sorely lacks in the United States. “Museum of Failures” is first and foremost a story about family, but also about the search for self, especially when one is torn between two vastly different cultural contexts.

Eve Guerra. “Repatriation," Ivan Limbach Publishing House (translated from French by Valeria Friedman, 208 pp., 16+)

Eve Guerra is a French writer of Congolese and Italian descent. She was born in the Congo and left the country during the civil war in the late 1990s. Guerra teaches French, Latin, and Ancient Greek, and has published as a poet and critic. In 2024, she released her debut novel, “Repatriation," which won the Prix Goncourt for First Novel and was shortlisted for several other literary awards. To a large extent, “Repatriation” is based on the writer's personal experience, though she altered some facts for the sake of the artistic construct.

The plot revolves around Annabella Morelli, a student from Lyon. She receives a letter announcing the death of her father — a French mechanic who lived for many years in Africa. He died on a construction site in Cameroon under unknown circumstances. Annabella decides to repatriate his body to France. But first comes finding money, negotiating with the employer who refuses to pay for repatriation, contacting relatives, visiting a notary. At the same time, it turns out the body might not be returned at all. The narrative develops through constant shifts between France and Africa — the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon. Childhood memories overlay the heroine's present.

Annabella grew up in an unstable environment: her parents' early marriage, violence, her mother's departure, her father's alcoholism, moves due to war. Her father remains a key figure — simultaneously an object of affection and a source of trauma. After his death, the heroine is confronted with conflicting versions of events and is forced to piece together her family history.

The novel is structured as a fragmentary mosaic. Chronology is disrupted, chapters are short, and the text blends interior monologue, dialogue, and description. The boundaries between memory, imagination, and reality blur. This mode of writing is directly linked to the text's task: to dissect a past filled with omissions and distortions. The author deliberately introduces an investigative element into the structure: the heroine tries to understand the circumstances of her father's death and simultaneously verifies the reliability of her own memories.

Parallel to her attempts to bring her father's body home, Annabella grapples with her own identity. She is of mixed race, living between two cultures. After fleeing Africa and her father, the heroine tried to build a new life in France. However, her father's death shattered this construct: the past returned through smells, colors, physical sensations. The attempt to distance herself from family history gave way to the necessity of incorporating it into her own biography. The text is full of concrete details: episodes of life in Africa, fleeing the Congo during the 1997–1999 war, her father's work in Gabon, scenes of poverty and isolation, the bureaucratic procedures involved in transporting a body.

Incidentally, Eve Guerra did not initially plan to write this novel precisely because of its autobiographical nature. The work began with separate impressions, but after the hero's clear goal emerged — to repatriate the body — the structure of the text formed as a sequence of scenes with a specific objective and obstacles. This decision also determined the book's genre: a blend of autofiction, family investigation, and coming-of-age story.

Lyubava Gornitskaya. “The twins' theorem," Abrikobuks (216 pp., 12+)

Lyubava Gornitskaya is a Russian prose writer and children's author, living in Rostov-on-Don, where she teaches Russian language and literature. She is a laureate of the Raduga prize and a finalist for Kniguru. “The Twins' Theorem” is a dystopia for young adults that continues the writer's work with social models and ethical issues.

After a global epidemic, the state restructures society and introduces a rule: only one “primary” child remains in a family. All subsequent children automatically receive “reserve” status and are sent to special nursery-accumulators. There they live outside the family, undergo training, and will eventually join the labor force. Although the institution of the family was preserved, attachments were declared undesirable — the state decided to reduce the level of pain from loss. At the same time, a person's worth is measured by their usefulness.

The story revolves around the twins Nika and Lika. Immediately after their birth, the mother must choose: one daughter stays home, the other is sent to the accumulator. Nika grows up in the family, goes to school, and is obligated to maintain her status — to study well, do music, drawing, and follow the rules. Lika lives in the reserve system, where personal connections are meaningless. Neither girl understands the reason for the choice: they look identical and were born at the same time. This question sets them on a path towards each other.

The novel's world is built around control and the fear of loss. The division into “primary” and “reserve” creates two groups: some depend on their status and fear losing it, while others are stripped of all rights. At the same time, the system does not eliminate emotions entirely but redistributes them and sets behavioral boundaries. Some characters doubt the rules but do not express it openly. Through Nika's storyline, the author shows the pressure of expectations. She must constantly prove her worth: grades, extracurriculars, achievements. Yet she has a choice, and gradually she deviates from the prescribed path, joining informal communities that consist mostly of “reserves.” Lika, conversely, has no choice; she seeks an answer to the question: why was she sent to the reserve. The sisters' meeting becomes a turning point for re-evaluating their perceptions of their own lives and the system as a whole.

Gornitskaya raises several themes: the impact of expectations on children and the distribution of roles within a family, the mechanism of controlling society through fear and partial satisfaction of needs, and the formation of a person's value, especially when measured through usefulness. Notably, the book is completely realistic. It contains only one fantastical assumption — the social structure.

Yekaterina Petrova is a literary columnist for the online newspaper Realnoe Vremya and hosts the Telegram channel «Булочки с маком».