Larisa Zalesova

Larisa Zalesova - Doctorow is a journalist and critic who is widely published in print and internet media in Russia and Western Europe, where her articles number in the hundreds and deal with the visual arts, music and literature. All of these skills and experience were deployed to create the culturally and socially rich text of this novel.

Zalesova lives in both St Petersburg, Russia and Brussels, Belgium.She is a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia and the Union of Music Critics of Belgium.

The Mosaic of My Life is the author's second novel. The original Russian language edition was published in 2019. The novel has been nominated for three national literary awards in Russia which will be adjudicated in the autumn of 2020.

The Mosaic of My Life covers a broad swathe of Russian history from the still ‘normal’ living conditions at the turn of the 20th century through World War I and the 1917 Revolution, the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War, to the New Economic Policy and semi-return to a market economy followed by the Great Terror, World War II and the immediate post war years. The story is based on reminiscences of people who lived through this complex historical period and, in their own words, explain their various decisions to stay or emigrate. The narrative takes the reader through several social strata from workers to high bourgeoisie, from inside the director’s box at the Bolshoi Theater to inside solitary confinement cells of political prisoners awaiting interrogation and likely execution.