The stories are grouped in two parts. • Part One. Before the Fall • "Novostroïka" • :The story is a fictionalization of Maria's parents experience: due to a clerical error their building did not enter the city's registry, and for the municipal services the building did not exist. This is what exactly happens in the story to Daniil Petrovich Blinov living at 1933 Invansk St. The "non-existing" building is central to the collection, with all events happening in or in the vicinity of it. The girl got the nickname not because she was loved, but because she had the "hare's lip", Russian for "
cleft lip". Reva wrote that initially it was difficult for her to strike a proper balance of
dark humor because of the atrocity of the situation in the orphanage where children were written off to die. However she says she had found a proper tone: the story started from the perspective of the orphanage management trying to deliver the logic of why the orphans must be handled this way. • "Miss USSR" • :The candidate for the pageant, a Ukrainian beauty Orynko was disliked by the bosses as "too political" ad removed. Konstantyn pulls Zaya out of the orphanage as a substitute, with bizarre consequences. • Part Two. After the Fall :In this part, the people of 1933 Invansk St. scramble to make for living in the emerged
capitalist economy. :*"Lucky Toss" ::Konstantyn charges pilgrims for visits to the mummy of a saint he keeps in an apartment next to his own. :*"Roach Brooch" ::"Lucky Toss" and "Roach Brooch" have a mystical,
Kafkaesque feeling, which somewhat precipitates into "The Ermine Coat" story. ::"Roach Brooch" connects to that of the "Bone Music": an old man with ungrateful offspring refuses to remove
cancer, because he is entitled to monthly X-rays, which he turns into the "bone music". :*"The Ermine Coat" ::At some point in the life Maria's parents indeed had to make living by sewing together
ermine pelts for coats. :*"Homecoming" ::Zaya returns to the orphanage to work for a business who recreates the experiences of
Gulag for wealthy "
dark tourists". ==Awards and nominations==