On the sunny side of the street

It all starts with the story of Katya - a girl dying of hunger during the siege of Leningrad. Katya is saved thanks to evacuation to the relatively safe Tashkent, which became a second home for thousands of Soviet citizens fleeing the Nazi invasion. As a young woman, Katya finds herself in the criminal environment of Tashkent, becomes a talented con artist, and "works" at the Tashkent markets. Later, out of wedlock, she gives birth to a daughter, Vera. Little Vera is unaware of her mother's business... The girl grows up surrounded by people of different nationalities - Russians, Uzbeks, Jews, Ukrainians... One day she saves a drunkard, whom she calls Uncle Misha, and he is the one who recognizes her artistic talent and begins to develop it. Later, Vera survives the devastating Tashkent earthquake of 1966 and becomes a world-famous artist. Dina Rubina's novel is an unexpected virtuoso somersault "under the dome of literature," an absolute transformation of the writer's style, his usual intonation, and range of themes. The whimsical fates of the novel's characters intertwine love and crimes, talent and passion capable of destroying a personality or elevating it to the heights of creativity. Open this novel - and you will not be released from the truly Babylonian crowd of characters: urban madmen and alcoholics, Russian nobles, exiles and former prisoners, "white colonizers" and "hashish hunters"... Based on Dina Rubina's novel "On the Sunny Side of the Street," a popular TV series was made, starring Alexander Domogarov, Sergey Makovetsky, and Anna Snatkina.