Tales of Ghosts. Preface. In English

TALES OF GHOSTS
About LOVE and DEATH from the LAND of MISTS

a collection of short stories
in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series

“TALES OF GHOSTS” is a collection of mystical and philosophical stories about various ghosts and the Otherworld, the sense of life and death, the tragic turns of fate and the search for mutual love, the importance of being oneself, listening to one's inner voice and putting nothing off until tomorrow. The book includes the cycles: “Love Me Now!”, “The Master of Fates”, “Restless Souls”, “Nostalgia for the body”, “The Land of Mists”. Edgar A. Poe, A. Hitchcock, E.T.A. Hoffmann, H.Chr. Andersen and other awards.

18+

KRYUCHKOVA Alexandra, Honored Writer of the Union of Writers of Russia, laureate of literary awards: “Heritage”, “Book of the Year”, M. Bulgakov, F. Dostoevsky, A. Saint-Exupery, L. Carroll, E. Poe, Ñ. Castaneda, etc. As a writer, she was invited at shows on TV “Culture”, “Evening Moscow”, “Russian World”, “Doverie”, “Artist TV”, “Dialogue TV”. State scholarship recipient in the category “outstanding figures of culture and art of the Russian Federation”. Nobel Prize Award in Literature nominee.

BOOKTRAILER: https://youtu.be/L4Oyw98pgaM


*******The BOOK******

ENG: «TALES of GHOSTS», ISBN 978-5-0056-9222-1, M.: - Ridero, 2023. – 432 pages.

RU+ENG: «ÑÊÀÇÊÈ ÏÐÈÇÐÀÊÎÂ / TALES of GHOSTS», ISBN 978-5-0059-2520-6, Ì.: – Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 596 ñ.

ITA: «RACCONTI di FANTASMI», ISBN 978-5-0069-9398-3, M.: — Ridero, 2026 — 444 pagine.

RU: «ÑÊÀÇÊÈ ÏÐÈÇÐÀÊλ, ISBN 978-5-0056-2207-5, Ì.: – Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 442 ñ.

RU+ITA: «ÑÊÀÇÊÈ ÏÐÈÇÐÀÊÎÂ / RACCONTI di FANTASMI», ISBN 978-5-…1, M.: — Ridero, 2026 — 614 c.

Some stories were pubblished, illustrated da A. Kryuchkova (the writer):

RU+ENG: «ÐÎÆÄÅÑÒÂÎ íà ÊÓÇÍÅÖÊÎÌ ÌÎÑÒÓ / CHRISTMAS on KUZNETSKY BRIDGE», ISBN 978-5-0060-0368-2, Ì.: – Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 242 ñ., èëë. À. Êðþ÷êîâîé.

RU+ENG: «Ò¨ÌÍÀß ÁÀØÍß / DARK TOWER», ISBN 978-5-0060-8414-8, Ì.: – Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 196 ñ., èëë. À. Êðþ÷êîâîé.

RU+ENG: «ÑÍÛ ÑÒÀÐÎÃÎ ÔÎÍÀÐß / The OLD LANTERN’S DREAMS», ISBN 978-5-0059-9741-8, Ì.: – Èçäàòåëüñêèå ðåøåíèÿ, 2023. – 164 ñ., èëë. À. Êðþ÷êîâîé



***** AWARDS of the book and of some of its stories *****

• “LITERARY OLYMPUS” 2012
(League of Writers of Eurasia, 2012)

• “SHADOW of a BIRD” 2021
EDGAR A. POE
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)

• “CASE ¹…” 2021
in Alfred HITCHCOCK nomination
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)

• “TALES for ADULTS” 2022
E. T. A. HOFFMANN & H. Chr. ANDERSEN
(Open Literary Club “Response”)

• “TALES of the XXI Century” 2022
in  H. Chr. ANDERSEN nomination
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)

• “WRITER of the XXI Century” 2022
in  N.V. GOGOL nomination
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia & “Literary Republic”)

• “The GOLDFISH” 2022
(Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, 2022)

• “THIS IS LOVE!”,
in O. HENRI nomination
(“Repubblica Letteraria”, 2023)


*****THANKS!*****

The author expresses her great gratitude to all the characters and prototypes of these stories, including numerous ghosts and everybody else!

I dedicate my book to every reader! As well as to: my parents, grandmothers, grandfather and great-grandfather, my son Andrey and our cat Josephine, and all KIND creatures and entities!

****ABOUT THE BOOK*****


*******D.J. NEMELSTEIN, “About LOVE and DEATH from the LAND of MISTS”*******

The book of philosophical and mystical stories by Alexandra Kryuchkova “Tales of Ghosts” (about Love and Death from the Land of Mists) is like a jewel box: each page contains something unique, and, trying the stories on, the reader will surely find their own! Even those, who are not burdened with a passion for mystification and take with skepticism talk about the Other World, will be charmed by the meanings, skillfully woven by the author into the fabric of a fascinating narrative. These stories not only reflect a high degree of writing skills, they radiate the Light of hidden wisdom and are filled with Divine Love.

Oddly enough, I met the author of “Tales of Ghosts” during the poetry seminar of Eugeny Rein at the Booker Laureates School in Milan 2012, where, as a result, E.B. Rein announced Alexandra Kryuchkova the winner in the poetry class with the award of Sergey Yesenin ‘Golden Autumn’ order decoration and a certificate for free edition of her book from the Moscow city organization of the Union of Writers of Russia. In the same place, in Milan, Alexandra was also marked in the prose course by the writer Viktor Erofeev, who singled out for the seminarians her novel “The Book of Secret Knowledge”, which opens the author’s “Playing Another Reality” series.

“Tales of Ghosts” harmoniously complement the series. The idea of assembling these stories into a book is admirable: all the main characters are already ghosts. Having moved to the Other World together with the author, they find themselves in a long and slow queue to the Heaven Chancellery, located in the City of the Sun, where everyone will be informed about one’s further destiny. To pass the time and warm the soul, the ghosts light up the fire, throwing into it their earthly lifetime stories. By the will of Lord, the author, in fact a listener of the stories, eventually returns from the City of the Sun to Earth in order to write down “Tales of Ghosts” by heart and pass them on to people.

It is no coincidence that the book consists of several parts. Arranged according to the principle from Earth to Heaven, it slowly leads the reader further and further into the Subtle World, to the place where the planet Earth is seen as a barely distinguishable point in the Abyss of the Cosmic Mind.

“LOVE ME NOW!” is a collection of philosophical love stories, united by the regret and remorse of the main characters that they could not live for real the opportunity of given to them Love. The reasons are different, but the result cannot be changed: unexpressed love ‘gnaws’ the souls, pulls them into the past, where they can never return. Is it possible to make dreams come true in a posthumous reality? The story “A Cats’ Name” from this collection deserves the highest praise: it is not just touching – the reader won’t doubt a bit that it is being told by… a dog devoted to its owner! The story “A Guest” explodes one’s mind with a trivial tea-party… with Death.

“THE MASTER OF FATES” contains shocking stories about those who imagine themselves to be God: perverted maniacs and quite on their minds – cold-blooded and prudent killers – commit crimes without a twinge of conscience. The author’s incredible ability to penetrate the mind of maniacs culminates in the chilling, purely Hitchcock-like story “Cranberries” and strikes the reader on the spot, causing him to fear not only the swamps, but also the cranberries!

“A BROKEN MIRROR” are mystical stories in the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe about ghost apparitions, each one strikingly unpredictable in its plot. The geography of phenomena is vast: London, Paris, Rome, Prague, Moscow, New York… Wherever the ghosts appear – in modern offices or in condemned houses, whether they are walking in the park near the Louvre or unwinding in a seaside resort in Italy – they are looking for an opportunity to complete some unfinished situation during their earthly lives, which haunts them after death, or they come to the aid of still alive relatives and beloved ones. The stories are so touching that they will not leave the reader without empathy: he involuntarily seeks a way of salvation for the main characters, finding it together with them and for himself. And here is another masterpiece – a heart-warming story “The House by the Station” about an abandoned wooden house, in which more than one generation of ghosts gather to drink tea, play chess and relive happy moments of the past. It is the third (central) part of the book that is the doorway to Another Reality.

“AT CHRISTMAS on KUZNETSKY BRIDGE”, “DARK TOWER” and “THE OLD LANTERN'S DREAMS” contain stories of the inhabitants of the Subtle World: souls not yet incarnated, but preparing for incarnation; disembodied, but longing for physical, as well as stories of other creatures, for example, like the Black Raven, who serves as a Guardian in the Land of Mists, and characters of fairy tales and other thought-forms. Here the influence of H. Chr. Andersen and E. T. A. Hoffmann, O. Wilde and A. S.-Exupery is captured, and the pearl of this collection, in my opinion, is the fairy tale “Water Lily”, by the way, reprinted three times and beloved by readers.

The book “Tales of Ghosts” includes both new stories and previously published ones (from the books “Do You Believe in Ghosts?” and “Water Lily”), which received positive reviews from literary critics even after their first publication. The famous poet and writer Alexander Karpenko rightly compared Kryuchkova’s short stories to the mystical thrillers of Edgar Allan Poe (Poetograd, No. 12 (113), 2014).

The stories from the book “Tales of Ghosts” got the following literary awards: “Shadow of a Bird” after Edgar Allan Poe and “Case No…” 2021 in A. Hitchcock nomination (the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, NP “Literary Republic”, 2021), H. Chr. Andersen and E. T. A. Hoffman “Tales for adults” (Open Literary Club “Response”, 2022), “Literary Olympus” (League of Eurasian Writers, 2012), etc.

A striking feature of Kryuchkova’s prose is the complete absence of a line between earthly and the Other Realities: while reading, we sometimes don’t even notice that the hero or heroine has already passed into the Other World! And all the characters – decisive and not so much ones, romantic and prudent, loving and hating, smart and naive, happy and unhappy, rich and poor – have one thing in common: they are mortal and, basically, suddenly.

The mystical spirit is masterfully matched by the author with the daily routine and real events of the era. Thus, behind the plot of the “The City of Rains” there is an ominous panorama of the crash of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001. The story “Stuck Pluto” is about an epidemic of coronavirus. In the story “Disembodied” we hear an echo of the Great Patriotic War. The ghost of a woman, a member of an intelligence network settled in Italy during the war years, with motherly persistence, for half a century, has been looking for her son, evacuated to Siberia with an orphanage.

The short novel “Good Night” recreates a picture of the frantic rhythm of life and rotation in the business circles of Moscow in the sinister 1990’s, when there was a demand for such unscrupulous people as Sackman, who robbed the owner of a furniture company, and the lovesick Oksana, ready to do anything for money, who easily sold her friend to the customer of the murder.

The image of Mr. Piggins (in the story “A Photo film”) is also quite remarkable, convex and brightly drawn by the author with obvious sarcasm. We see a state official, who has successfully moved from the Soviet era into the era of radical changes: as he received his “tips” in the form of interest, bribes and kickbacks, so he continues to receive them. And he will never die, because the Piggins are immortal…

It is surprising that many of the works gathered in this book were created by Alexandra when she was a teenager, they are so well “faceted”. Written in pastel colors, lyrical and tender, they contain a slight sadness and a non-childlike understanding of the world beauty, in which Divine Love prevails over everything. A considerable portion of it is produced by the author herself, as if she remained to live on Earth at the age of a teenage girl. However, the character of her “Farewell to Childhood” is right,

“Time doesn’t exist. It is conditional and relative. You will learn to manage Time when you realize that it doesn’t matter how old you are on Earth, the main thing is who you feel you are …”

Yes! To look at the world through children’s eyes, being an adult, is a gift from the Creator.

After reading the book, one gets the feeling that the author is constantly and intently watching her characters – and even the reader! – not from the side, but as if from Above, from different heights, now approaching them, then moving away, but never leaving them … like their guardian angel.

However, answering the question “Do you believe in ghosts?”, I will quote the wise “A Letter from the Astral Tablets”, included by the author in “Tales of Ghosts”,

“Certainly, my dear friend… in my life, there have been also other inexplicable cases related to those who passed into the Other World, but I should confess to you that most of all I have always been concerned about the relationship of living people, because it is what turns some of us into ghosts…”

Dmitry J. NEMELSTEIN,

poet, writer, historian,
member of the Union of Writers of Russia,
laureate of literary awards

The magazine “CHILDREN of RA” No. ¹1 (194), 2022,
Magazine Hall “Gorky-Media”.

https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30279
http://detira.ru/arhiv/publication.php?id=30279



******P. G. GULDEDAVA, «N.V. GOGOL AWARD 2022»******

«„I’ve been appointed your Guardian!“ I smiled and spread my snow-white wings.»
A. Kryuchkova,
«Christmas on Kuznetsky Bridge»

We all come from the Cosmos, but not all of us keep our snow-white wings. At first glance, judging by the titles, Alexandra Kryuchkova’s book «Christmas on Kuznetsky Bridge» is a collection of Orthodox stories. No doubt, these stories in one way or another have their roots in the author’s Orthodox childhood, and are also connected with the memories of her retreats to monasteries and full of her love for Greek Mount Athos, on the border of which Alexandra Kryuchkova spent many years already in her adulthood. But do not rush to conclusions, reader! The works of mystical writers go beyond the conventional stereotypes. In general, I agree with the author’s natural victory in N.V. Gogol nomination of the competition «Writers of the XXI century» (Moscow city organization of the Union of Writers of Russia and «Literary Republic», 2022), although, almost Gogol-like title «Christmas on Kuznetsky Bridge» seems to have less to do with respected Nikolai Vasilievich («The Night Before Christmas», «Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka») than «A Sinner» and «An Iconographer», included in the book as well.

It all starts with a charming cat Barsik, an angel and a devil, appearing almost simultaneously in the intensive care room during the clinical death of the main character — the story «God, Barsik and borscht», and immediately the author puzzles the readers with the question about their purpose, as if asking, why did you come to earth?

«Perhaps serving Barsik is my mission on Earth. Isn’t Barsik the reason I am still alive? Or maybe… serving the Barsiks? I wonder how many cats I could save during my life, while I saved only one…»

«I have four grandchildren, they will be lost without me here! Who will cook my borsch for them?»

«Me? A nun?!» Lyudmila cringed at the mere thought of it. «Are you saying that I am not destined to find earthly love?»

Remember the question about earthly love and leaving for a monastery, since the final story «It’s time for vacation on Athos» is actually the answer, but the author skillfully leads the reader to Heaven along the Stairs without jumping over the steps, because…

«Every soul has its own mission on Earth. If you don’t complete it, you won’t be able to continue your journey in Heaven.»

After «Barsik» the reader is subconsciously prepared for the development of the line of the monasticism romanticized by the author, but then — in the story «A Sinner» — the image of the priest-drunkard instantly destroys the illusion of holiness and resembles N. V. Gogol’s characters. Thus, in the strictest week of the Easter fast,

«After a small breakfast of scrambled eggs, taking with him a couple of cheese and sausage sandwiches, and only by chance remembering to take also the Gospel and the cross, the parish priest, Father Alexey, slowly went to confess a certain parishioner Pelageya, who was dying of a terminal illness… What the dying woman had told him up to that point was not of particular interest to the priest, he even snored a little…»

In the story of the prodigal father, who in the end never absolved the sins of his son’s mother, whom he had abandoned to the mercy of fate, Alexandra Kryuchkova literally turns everything upside down, changes the reader’s stereotyped ideas about sinfulness and holiness.

«...soon, when I told him we were going to have a baby, he forbade me to give birth to our son.»

«Son?» Father Alexey furrowed his brow and fiddled with the Gospel.

«Yes, thank God, I didn’t take at least that sin upon my soul! After all, we never got married. My groom got scared, exchanged me for the daughter of a rich and influential official. And my son outwardly is a copy of his father, and I named him Alexey as well.»

«<…> That same evening, Father Alexey left his cassock at home and went with friends to a pub. Having drunk heavily, the next morning he skipped the mass and spent the entire Holy Week with friends, remembering the Passion of Christ without parting with the bottle.»

The situation, described by the author as if from the outside, without personal comments, is brilliantly brought to a caustic conclusion.

«On Easter, <…> taking church wine with him, Father Alexey went to the grave of the newly departed and bumped into a handsome young man at the cemetery gate. The priest immediately recognized his son, but the son would have never recognized his father, since he looked too bad…»

Is it bold? I agree, but each of us remembers from childhood, there is a black sheep in the family, and now the reader subconsciously trusts the author — the writer looks the truth in the eye, no matter how bitter it may be, which means that everything she tells us is true.

At a well-chosen moment, the door to Another Reality opens slightly by an intricate story with the uncomplicated title «Grandma», the main character of which makes a decision, «to die in Paris, the city of Love, because of the lack of Love… why not a plot for a novel?» The author’s grandmother lived in Paris indeed and was a Catholic. In the story, she carefully and, what is important, in advance, takes her unfortunate granddaughter to Another Reality to meet the padre, to whom the restless hanged men have already lined up.

«Father! Have pity on me! I swear on the Bible, I’ve done a lot of good deeds in 200 years!»

The priest nodded, crossing the hanged man’s neck, and the man immediately disappeared. I took another look at the countdown of my earthly time, there were 7 days left. Yes, just like I had planned. However, to spend 200 years in the Other World, like the hanged man, was not in my plans at all!

«But what can I do here in Paris, a foreign city to me? I don’t even know French!!!… How can I do so many good deeds?»

How many good deeds is one sinful thought worth? And what would you do in 7 days to erase it in the tablets, even without committing a sin yet? Alexandra Kryuchkova in her works gives the reader the opportunity to walk in the shoes of the protagonist in an extreme situation in order to make the only true decision for themselves — to find a way out of the Darkness into the Light.

An interesting technique is the grandmother’s vow of silence, she doesn’t utter a word during the entire story, enhancing the intrigue of the plot. This is an impressive story about the power of good deeds, no matter who or what they are addressed to. Moreover, one can do good even after one’s transition to Another Reality, and one should never despair and doubt the inevitable victory of Good over Evil!

I’d like to note that unpredictability is one of the distinguishing features of Alexandra Kryuchkova’s works, and each story has its own tone and mood, its own flavor of Another Reality.

«An Iconographer, or the Housing Problem» is another irony of fate! Despite the seriousness of the issue, in this story, written on behalf of a man, the author shows an excellent sense of humor. If the saints shake their fingers to you from the icons, and funny devils peek out from the walls of the adjacent apartment asking for a glass of cognac, don’t rush to enter into conversations with them, because not everyone has a mysterious nun ready to pray for their disappearance.

«…A scruffy devil’s head popped out of the wall.

«Any cognac?» he asked me.

«Do demons drink?» I asked stunned.

«Of course not! They sniff!» the devil broke into a smile of the Cheshire cat and, giggling, winked. «We are drawn to Earth! Don’t feed us with prana! We miss physical bodies, that’s why we settle into still alive ones!»

«What the hell!» I thought, not really trusting the horned creature, but I invited him to the kitchen and asked to tell me what was going on there, in exchange for a bottle of Remy Martin.

«What’s going on?» the devil chuckled. «War, bro!»

«For the neighbor’s soul?» I wondered.

«No, for everyone’s!»

In this story, the theme of leaving for a monastery is already manifested in a threefold way, two nuns and a future monk-iconographer, each of which has a unique destiny, for «the ways of the Lord are inscrutable».

The following story «The Singers, or Warriors of Light» explains to the reader the author’s craving for monasteries: two girls from the church choir, performing a cappella to the Patriarch of All Russia Alexey II during the divine liturgy in the main cathedral of the country, ask each other absolutely not childish questions, because «the priests’ evasive answers were no longer enough», but they find diametrically opposite answers.

«You know, lately I’ve been thinking about God, asking myself questions and… I can’t find answers. <…> I feel good in church, my soul is calm there. But sometimes it seems to me that there is no God, and there is nothing after death either…»

«Come on! I often feel my parents come to visit me. I don’t see them, but I know that they are right here, very close. And they come to me in dreams also! Life doesn’t end with a funeral! It’s just that no one is able to contain even one Galaxy, to know its structure and design. What a Great Power rules the Universe! Do you think we are born to die? Unbelievable! Imagine: a person is talking to you, thinking, reasoning, and suddenly, in a second, he is gone dead. Where did his thinking Self, his consciousness, go? No, Ella, I don’t want to believe that consciousness is fading forever. It can’t be so, not everything disappears with the physical body. God exists, at least because I feel that way.»

«Then why does God send troubles to people? Why did he take your parents away?»
«How do you know who sends troubles and who took my parents away?» Alla darkened. «Probably, it was the Devil!»

«Then it turns out that the Devil is stronger than God,» Ella sighed.
Kryuchkova is a true philosopher in literature, she boldly takes the reader by the hand and leads to the culmination of the struggle between Good and Evil not just anywhere, but in the diocese of God himself.

«I become more and more convinced that He doesn’t exist. Today, for example, innocent carnations were killed, and God didn’t even resist. By the way, that happened in His eparchy, or rather, in His own house, in church!»

«The church calls everyone to do good, forgive and love one’s neighbor, not in words, but in deeds. God is everything good and perfect, gathered into a single whole. Aspiring to God means to improve yourself, then our world will automatically change for the better. No? However, people see specks in everyone, except for themselves… Faith is the guiding thread, and hope is the staff. It’s more difficult to walk without the staff. And without faith, it’s easy to get lost on the way.»

«Beautiful words! But… they are far from the truth of life.»

Alla, who defends the triumph of the Forces of Light in the disputes with her friend, loses not only her friend, who dies prematurely due to her stepfather’s harassment, but also the place promised to her in the adult choir, since it’s given to the priest’s voiceless daughter.

It is amazing that the author takes no side in the disputes of the main characters, but the final phrase in the scene where all of them, for various reasons, moved to another world, are ranked among the warriors of Light, speaks of the author’s uncompromising faith in the triumph of justice.

«Hello, warriors of Light! The Dark Forces don’t sleep! Let’s not relax so that they don’t say on Earth that the Devil is stronger than God! So here are our tasks for today…»

«Christmas on Kuznetsky Bridge» is charming and sometimes humorous, thanks to the grotesque — the author seems to be juggling contrasting Christmas tree balls against the backdrop of the repeated scenery of the Kuznetsky Bridge and the refrain of Christmas walking along it. The incarnated souls not only remember nothing of their agreements before incarnation, but also completely deny the existence of the Other World.

«Listen, what else ghosts, Alice?» Vasya laughed. «There’s nothing, except for „here and now“! I studied much literature in all related areas! Neither God nor Devil found!»

It’s interesting that the theme of leaving for a monastery is resurrected here already with inevitability and sounds like the tocsin of the penultimate incarnation, despite the fact that «Christmas» is perhaps the most sexual story of the author who chants Another Reality.

«God, what a beauty! And just imagine! Everything has a solid body!!! Not a kind of visualization or hologram, like we do!»

We entered the room, Vasya turned on the dim light, and we finally collapsed into a wide bed… ten years later. Who would have thought it!

Sex after a certain age is like feeling that you are at home, there is nothing unknown and shy, and no need to set records for the Guinness Book, you accept each other for who you are, just enjoying the fact that everyone is alive and well, you both are together here and now, and you can not only be tender, but also speak out.

«I will go to a monastery and pray for people like you! And then we will meet at Christmas on Kuznetsky Bridge, already as ghosts! And you will be ashamed of yourself for not believing in us!»

Higher up the steps of the Stairway to Heaven, closer and closer comes the denouement. «The Temple, or When the Fairies Die» is a tale for adults about an attempt of a fairy to rewrite the fate of a businessman who is persuaded by a representative of the Dark Forces to demolish the temple in order to build a casino. Do you know when fairies die? Kryuchkova, surprisingly, brilliantly manages to write about earthly existence from the Heaven being’s point of view, as if she lives in Another Reality or is the very same fairy sent into our world to fight the Forces of Darkness.

The final story, «It’s time for vacation on Athos», is the most mysterious, piercingly sad and no longer earthly. However, it is in this story that the thirst for earthly love goes off scale, as the protagonist has only to go to a monastery on Mount Athos as the last incarnation of all those who are no longer entitled to earthly love!

«…Everything existing on Earth appear in Heaven in the form of holograms, but it’s impossible to materialize some physical body in order to feel each other…
He pretended that the fairy tale would come true, and I pretended to believe it.
Suddenly I felt so alone! Hardly anyone on Earth could imagine what it was like to be a Warrior of Light! The darkness was thickening.»

It’s impressive that Kryuchkova succeeds in a miniature (!) about «vacations» and «business trips» to Earth in an expedient and coordinated with the Higher Forces «fragment of a chess game of the several millennia tournament» to tell about the structure of the Universe, to turn 180 degrees the template view of human life and allow the reader to look at themselves from a height where «those who’re angry don’t take root».

«„You will sleep it off in the Other World!“ my grandma used to say, but she was wrong, since one could sleep it off on Earth only!»

The books by Alexandra Kryuchkova have a magical effect on me: the mundane dialogues of the fantastic characters smooth out the agitated consciousness, and you penetrate into the fabric of the narrative, into her Another Reality, and become an accomplice to what is happening so much that when the characters calmly tell you about the impossible, as if it were ordinary, in fact, you believe in the actual possibility of the impossible.

The universal scope of the author and the cinematic style of writing allows us to wander the streets of modern Paris, but at the same time observe the construction of the Tower of Babel and see the ruins of Carthage, where the ancient oracle thoughtfully examines a smartphone in his hand, knowing full well that no technical device is required for miraculous predictions.

Alexandra Kryuchkova is a unique writer in her own way, one of the living classics of modern literature, whose works are reminiscent of prayers for sending people blessed rain and of the snow-white wings of an invisible guardian angel, spread over a man (or even mankind?!).

However, the scale of many talented and non-standard writers is simply not noticed in the crowd of the average authors, and some people don’t want to notice, because everything around them, regardless of the level of giftedness, is the nutritious krill of publishing whales. And yet, the hope for the triumph of justice is the last to die!

Peter Georgievich GULDEDAVA

Member of Academy of Russian Literature,
Honored Writer of the Moscow City Organization
of the Union of Writers of Russia,
Head of Literary Union «Fresh look»,
Chief editor of «Street organ» almanac

Magazine «Futurum Art» No. 1 (54), 2023

https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32997
https://futurum-art.ru/archiv/nomer.php?id_pub=32997
https://reading-hall.ru/futurum-art/1(54)2023.pdf
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3277
https://futurum-art.ru/contents.php?id=3277



*****M.A. ZAMOTINA, “KIND & WISE FAIRY TALES by Alexandra Kryuchkova”

(about “Tales from the Land of Mists”, “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” edition)

“Everyone has their home here,
but you have to find it
by going through the Land of Mists.”

Alexandra Kryuchkova


There is an opinion that everyone loves fairy tales, both children and adults. Probably because this genre is special and magical. In fairy tales, the most incredible transformations and transfigurations are possible, the characters are able to move into any of the existing and non-existent worlds, fiction is inseparable from reality.

There are many fairy tales nowadays. Both in bookstores and digital libraries. Of course, in the new century, new features appeared in the Russian fairy tale tradition. “What are they?” the reader will ask. What can be changed in a fairy tale? After all, the fairy tale is an ancient genre, that everyone understands. However, at the same time, today we see new stylistic techniques, new subjects, and a particularly acute relevance.

Tales by Alexandra Kryuchkova, first of all, are distinguished by a confidential intonation. The author doesn’t seem to invent anything, she doesn’t fantasize, doesn’t lie. Is there no Land of Dreams? Or no Land of Mists? Of course, they exist. We know this for sure. Why? Because the author speaks to us, the readers, as if we were her own close friends. We trust her, and this puts us in touch with her characters.

Every literary work, like a musical one, has its own tonality. And Alexandra Kryuchkova’s fairy tales have it, too. But tonality, as well as music, has to be listened to. I have no doubt that every reader will understand it at once, from the very first lines.

“A fluffy willow branch was dozing in a Venetian vase on the windowsill, when a delicate Butterfly appeared on it.” '
(“The Old Lantern’s Dream”)

While the “Sky Ladder” begins and sounds quite different:

“Olesya was waiting for her favorite holiday, the New Year, with bated breath, and really as a new one, so that it would radically change her life. The girl had been ill for a long time, but the doctors assured she was about to recover. And as a gift for the holiday, as always, she wanted to receive a book about the stars.”

For me, a fairy tale is, first of all, a mood. Alexandra’s book is beautifully illustrated by the author herself. And if the word and the vision of the word coincide, then it is a special mood! Alexandra Kryuchkova, both as a writer and as an artist, is not meticulous in details, her world is bright, elegant, kind and very simple in perception. This is amazing! Her pictures are bright and elegant. Cheerful and kind. And so understandable! At the same time, Alexandra’s fairy tales cannot be called static colorful canvases. Everything about them is in motion. In the movement of thoughts and dreams.

It is very important that the new fairy tale worlds by Alexandra Kryuchkova, and there are a few of them in this book, are accessible to us, the readers. As well as to her characters. And we do not even ponder why the seemingly incompatible in time and space are easily and naturally perceived, since Alexandra masters the laws of the genre perfectly, in her fairy tales the atmosphere of an ordinary miracle does not oppose the genuine geography.

“Birthday is a sad holiday. It’s good that it doesn’t happen very often. The guests, repeating the same wishes from year to year, had already gone. However, that time Peter felt an elusive Something leaving his life together with the guests, but forever, and he could neither stop nor return that Something. It left the boy alone with the enormous adult world, so unlike a fairy tale, while the teddy bear was boring in the armchair and waiting for Peter to pay attention to him, to caress him and say something kind and affectionate.” 
(“Farewell to Childhood”)

Alexandra Kryuchkova’s characters live miraculously in nature. As in the fairy tale “Water Lily” there is the flower itself and two Frogs, the Younger and the Elder. There are many more characters in this tale, the tale only begins with a simple question, “Why are you sad, Water Lily?” It’s even more of a parable with elements of a fairy tale.

To an adult reader, indeed, some fairy tales may seem like parables. See the dictionary, “A parable is a short story in allegorical form, comprising a moral teaching (morality)”. Vladimir Dal interpreted the word ‘parable’ as ‘teaching by example’. Epos genre: a small narrative work of edifying nature, containing a religious or moral lesson in allegorical form.”

Perhaps, not only the “Water Lily” but also the “Enchanted Lake” and the “Enchanted Prince” by Alexandra Kryuchkova can be considered parables.
But the world of a child is a special world. A child’s gaze is fixed on the little things. A child often has an inescapable urge to create a fairy tale out of his own impression. “What for?” an adult will ask. And how to answer?

Everything about childhood is fabulous. What for us, adults and educated ones, is a transfer of meaning, a metaphor, an allegory, a lesson, for a child it is just a fairy tale.

The fairy tale world created by Alexandra Kryuchkova, and no matter who travels in it, an adult reader or a child, captures hearts with wisdom and kindness. The nature of the fairy tale contains the conventionality that we expect, as we accept the obligatory miracles, a necessary attribute of the genre. Gnomes, trolls, elves, magic wands that exist in the folk tales of the world are familiar and unshakable. The author’s plot is a different matter. There are plenty of possibilities here. And Alexandra uses them skillfully.

Alexandra Kryuchkova’s stories are very sympathetic due to their reverence and benevolence. Sometimes episodes of her fairy tales turn out to be so realistic, so similar to what is happening today in reality, that they are perceived as stories with some addition of fantasy plots.

For example, the characters in the story “The Girl and the Cat” are the humanized properties of our natures:

“They never came back… Perhaps one day you will meet them, two eternal wanderers, the Girl and the Black Cat. However, probably they have already reached the Stairway to Heaven and joined the myriad of stars illuminating your path…”

Alexandra Kryuchkova is a kind person, no doubt. And how she loves her characters! And we understand why! Yes, I note that goodness and belief in happiness and justice are among the author’s chosen virtues. And she doesn’t impose her opinion, but shows her characters easily and freely in the circumstances created for them.

The author is not a boring pedant, but a creative person who unobtrusively arranges the space of plot collisions, twists and turns, the relationships of the characters, objects, phenomena, the space of feelings, the direct perception of the fairy-tale world.

“Somewhere far away in the Sky, the seagulls noticed the outlines of an unknown City. They wondered, what kind of City it was, being situated not on Earth, but in the Sky. They had never seen such cities before!”
(“The Girl and the Sea”)

The immutability of the author’s understanding of good and evil is easily read in the fairy tales by Alexandra Kryuchkova. The author educates both adults and young readers the ability to recognize the world, to feel beauty, she teaches us faith in a good, wise and honest life.

“And the Girl disappeared. The Rocks no longer saw her there, on the seashore, at sunset. Only the book left by the Girl on the coastal stone reminded them of her existence…”
(“The Girl and the Sea”)

A fairy tale gives us hope. If something doesn’t work out for us exactly as in a fairy tale, we still try to make our wish come true, to make our dreams become reality. Sometimes, the hustle and bustle of the current worries and everyday troubles can make us feel sad and lonely, and then a fairy tale comes to the rescue as a life vest.

A good fairy tale is also a real Goldfish, and in the autumn of 2022, on behalf of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, I awarded Alexandra Kryuchkova with the GoldFish literary prize, the medal “for creating fantasy and fairy-tale works for children and adults”, for “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” book.

Alexandra’s tales are clever and uncompromising. The precious qualities of kindness, harmony, fidelity and honor in her tales, as well as the condemnation of evil and treachery, will find their way to the hearts of children and adults not only in our country, but all over the world.

Marina Anatolievna ZAMOTINA,

Honored Worker of Culture of Russia,
Member of the Executive Board of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia,
Executive Secretary of the creative associations of critics, writers of plays, children and youth literature.

Newspaper “Literary News” / “Literaturnye Izvestia” ¹12 (210), 2022
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32390
http://litiz.ru/archive/litiz_2022_12(210).pdf
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3209


***********A.N. KARPENKO, “DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?”***********

The lyrical novellas of Alexandra Kryuchkova can’t leave anyone indifferent. They tell about the most vulnerable and fragile thing in human destiny – the formation and collapse of relationship between a man and a woman, about different faces of this and Other World life. Kryuchkova’s stories are quite short, no more than two pages, but how many experiences fall to the lot of their characters!

The writer uses the effect of a ‘detective’ ending: everything, as a rule, doesn’t end the way the reader expects. The aerobatics of the dramaturgy of these stories is when one emotion interrupts another and reverses the outcome. Such an inverted outcome sometimes evokes in the reader directly opposite, overwhelming emotions.

The second and third parts of the book are written in the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe’s mystical thrillers. Nowadays ghosts, of course, don’t appear in old Gothic castles, but, for example, in the fashionable offices of well-known firms (the story “A Letter”). You see, they, the ghosts, absolutely don’t care where to appear. The surroundings don’t interest them at all. As in the works of past centuries, they are spiritually bound to the premises in which they died. Although, to tell the truth, I prefer stories outside the Otherworld – “A Piano”, “A Cat’s Name”, “See you Tomorrow”.

Without exception, all the short stories of Alexandra Kryuchkova are written at a high artistic level of narration and dramaturgy.

Kryuchkova’s creative biography is full of surprises. She began writing poetry and prose at the age of 11. And not just began, because some short stories were included in the book, which is the subject in my note. This is evidenced by the dates under the works. These stories not only entered the book, they took their rightful place in it. The old works of the child prodigy Kryuchkova, included in her collection, were written by the hand of master. And they say that there will be no more Lermontovs because of the supposedly “slow” maturation of modern youth. However, it is not so! When you read Alexandra Kryuchkova’s stories, you don’t even think that they were written by a teenage girl.

I think that such an early maturation of Kryuchkova, as in the case of Lermontov, is caused by the premature death of both her parents. The tragic orphanhood could not but affect the child’s psyche. For Alexandra Kryuchkova, this resulted in a genuine interest in the Other World. The drama of life entered her soul early. As in the case of Lermontov, everyone learned about the prodigy Kryuchkova in retrospect, when she had already grown up and became a famous poet.

Although the stories, presented in the book, were written by Alexandra at a young age, they have not lost their original value even today. And yet, it’s a pity that our country didn’t care about its brilliant children in the nineties of the last century. And that Alexandra Kryuchkova’s early stories were published only two decades after they were written.

Alexander KARPENKO*,

poet and writer

The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 12 (113), 2014
https://www.reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=9499
http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html



*******D.J. NEMELSTEIN, “«THE OLD LANTERN’s DREAMS» by Alexandra Kryuchkova to be watched by everybody!"*******

(about “Tales from the Land of Mists”, “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” edition)

For the first time in Russian and English in a full-color edition, the book by the wonderful writer Alexandra Kryuchkova “The Old Lantern’s Dreams” includes wise fairy tales, equally interesting for both children and adults. It is noteworthy that the author made not only the translation, but also the artistic design of the edition. Charming pastel drawings are both childishly naive and pure, maturely serious and kind.

Getting a little ahead, I will say that the fabulous miniatures by Alexandra Kryuchkova, reflecting a high degree of writing skills, truly radiate the Light of hidden wisdom and are filled with Divine Love.

A striking feature of Kryuchkova’s prose is the complete absence of a line between earthly and the Other Realities, the reader moves in space and time, like the heroine of the “Sky Ladder”, Olesya, sometimes diving into the Galaxy, where

“ships used to float everywhere. A lot of them and different ones: peaceful – with travelers, pirate – with sails, cannons and parrots, and just lonely boats – with nobody and nothing…”,

and then returning back by means of the numerous magical ladders,

“…rope and cable, wooden and metal, even marble – ladders of various colors and sizes, as well as home ones.”

Thanks to the amazing talent of the author, it seems that everyone is able to do this, both a child and an adult, but only if one “believes in one’s own star”; because “wings are given to those who believed in them”. However, behind the abundance of heavenly ladders and boats, the reader at some point discovers that this is a tale of selfless friendship and hope for the triumph of goodness and justice. Olesya will never give out the sad secret of her friend Vadik to anyone, and her desire to share happiness and help her friend become a real prince is so deep and sincere that it evokes tenderness and strikes the reader to the very heart.

The mysterious miniature “The Enchanted Prince” about the night spent by a wanderer on the shore of a lake in the Land of Mists unobtrusively tells us about the laws of Heaven, the violation of which even in dreams threatens with serious consequences, but the author leaves hope for everyone to become real in order to work miracles:

“Only a true princess from the Human World, capable to love with the Divine Love, will be able to disenchant the prince!”

...despite the fact that it requires

“to make such a dangerous journey from Earth to this lake and… feel a living human soul in a tree…”

“The Old Lantern’s Dream” is truly magical: before our eyes, a caterpillar on a willow branch turns into a butterfly, sharing another mystery. Only by overcoming one’s own fears, the reader will allow dreams to come true. But how to do it? How to overcome fear? The butterfly knows the answer to this question too; talking with the girl, she brings hope for the Light to each of us.

Despite the different reasons for striving towards Heaven and the endings of the stories, the miniature “The Girl and the Cat” and the fairy tale “Water Lily” are still imbued with the same hope of finding happiness.

However, after reading the delightful stories by Alexandra Kryuchkova, gathered in “The Old Lantern’s Dreams”, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the connecting thread of this fabulous collection is Faith, Hope and Love in their eternal divine intertwining.

The pearl of this collection, in my opinion, is the fairy tale “Water Lily”, in which the Angel gives the main character (a flower) the opportunity to correct a mistake in order to fulfill the destiny on Earth and find true happiness in Heaven. The tale makes the reader take a closer look at his own life, including from a different – heavenly – point of view.

While reading the book until the last paragraph, one gets the feeling that the author is constantly and intently watching her characters – and even the reader! – not from the side, but as if from Above, from different heights, now approaching them, then moving away, but never leaving them … like their guardian angel.

Two parables – how the sea became salty, “The Girl and the Sea”, and how reality turned into a fairy tale, “The Enchanted Lake”, – are laconic and wise, once again confirming the axiom about the sister of talent, named brevity.

It is surprising that many of the works gathered in this book were created by Alexandra when she was a teenager, they are so well “faceted”. Partially published earlier in the books “Tales of Ghosts” (Part V. Tales from the Land of Mists), “Do You Believe in Ghosts?”, “Water Lily”, they received positive reviews from literary critics even at their first publication. The well-known poet and writer Alexander Karpenko rightly compared early miniatures of Kryuchkova to the genius of the young Lermontov (Poetograd, No. 12 (113), 2014).


In the texts of Kryuchkova, the influence of H. Chr. Andersen, Oscar Wilde and A. de Saint-Exupery is captured. Written in pastel colors, the fairy tales are lyrical and tender, with a slight sadness and a non-childlike understanding of the beauty of the world, where Divine Love prevails over everything. A fair share of it is produced by the author herself, as if she remained to live on Earth at the age of a teenage girl. The character of her “Farewell to Childhood” is right,

“Time doesn’t exist. It is conditional and relative. You will learn to manage Time when you realize that it doesn’t matter how old you are on Earth, the main thing is who you feel you are …”

Yes! To look at the world through children’s eyes, being an adult, is a gift from the Creator.

It is no coincidence that the fabulous cycle by Alexandra Kryuchkova was awarded with literary prizes for works for both children and adults: “The GoldFish” (Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, 2022), “Tales of the XXI century”, H. Chr. Andersen nomination (NP “Literary Republic” together with the MGO SP of Russia, 2022), “Tales for adults” in honor of H. Chr. Andersen and E. T. A. Hoffmann (Open Literary Club “Response”, 2022).

Plunge into the multi-colored “Dreams of the Old Lantern”, feel Earth and Heaven merged in them, and the rays of Divine Love will surely illuminate you and warm your heart and soul.
 
Dmitry J. NEMELSTEIN,

poet, writer, historian,
member of the Union of Writers of Russia,
laureate of literary awards

Newspaper “Poetograd” ¹11 (407), 2022

https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32429
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=32429
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*****REFERENCES*****

1. The magazine “CHILDREN of RA” No. ¹1 (194), 2022, Magazine Hall “Gorky-Media”.
“Tales of Ghosts” by D. Nemelstein.
http://detira.ru/arhiv/publication.php?id=30279
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30279
http://detira.ru/arhiv/contents.php?id=2905
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2905
https://magazines.gorky.media/ra/2022/1

2. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 11-12 (197-198), 2021, “The results of the literary awards 2021” by the press-secretary of Moscow State Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30044
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=30044
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2864
http://litiz.ru/archive/litiz_2021_11-12(197-198).pdf
http://www.litiz.ru/arch.html

3. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”)  No. 2 (200), 2022
“Serving Another Reality” by S. Bersenev.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30458
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=30458
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2940
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=30458
http://litiz.ru/arch.html

4. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 11 (209), 2022
“The results of the literary awards 2022” by the press-secretary of Moscow State Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32226
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=32226
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3184
http://litiz.ru/arch.html

5. The newspaper “LITERARY NEWS” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”)  No.12 (210), 2022
“Kind & wise fairy-tales by Alexandra Kriuchkova” by M. Zamotina.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32390
http://litiz.ru/nomer.php?id=32390
http://litiz.ru/archive/litiz_2022_12(210).pdf
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3209

6. The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 12 (113), 2014
“Do you believe in ghosts?” by A. Karpenko.
https://www.reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=9499
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=9499
http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html

7. The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 1 (397), 2022
“The results of the Open Literary Club 2021” by L. Koroleva.
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30303
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=30303
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=2908
http://poetograd.ru/archive/poetograd_2022_01(397).pdf
http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html

8. The newspaper “POETOGRAD” No. 11 (407), 2022
“‘The Old Lantern’s dreams’ by A. Kriuchkova are to be watched by everyone!” by D. Nemelstein
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=32429
https://poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=32429
https://poetograd.ru/arch.html
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3212

9. Magazine “FUTURUM ART” ¹1 (52), 2022
L.Ya. Reznik, “Poet & writer Alexandra Kryuchkova? Remember the name!”
https://futurum-art.ru/archiv/nomer.php?id_pub=31202
https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=31202
https://reading-hall.ru/contents.php?id=3051
https://futurum-art.ru/contents.php?id=3051

10. Magazine “LITERARY MOSCOW” / “Moskva literaturnaya” No. 1, 2022,
“Names of the 21st century”, L. Reznik, “Poet and writer Alexandra Kryuchkova? Remember the name!” ISBN 978-5-7949-0936-4, Moscow, the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, NP “Literary Republic”, 2022. — 128 pages.

11. Encyclopedia “Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia. The beginning of the XXI century”, reference book about the members of the Union, ISBN 978-5-7949-0884-8, M.: — MGO SPR, 2021 — 198 p.

12. Newspaper “LITERARY NEWSPAPER” / “Literaturnaya Gazeta” No. 17 (6782) dated April 28, 2021, LG portfolio / marginal notes, V. Shiltzyn: “To have a look beyond the brink of Being”.