an Independent Life

Valerka, the hero of “Bouge pas, Meurs, Ressucite”, has grown up. Unfairly expelled from a vocational-training school and knowing he has partially ruined his mother’s life, Valerka leaves Sutchan for the north and the mouth of the Love River. It is a voyage of initiation that takes him to Nilolayevsk-upon-Love where he is hoping to find an aunt he has never seen. He discovers a world of grown-ups and daily concerns. He goes back over his life and reviews the lies and treachery that have hallmarked it. He puts his childhood and adolescence behind him as he grows into adulthood…