Editorial Book Reviews
A Delightful Reading Experience
First, let me mention that when you search for Master of the Forest on Amazon, two books come up by different authors. One was published by Artyom Dereschuk in 2018, and the one I’m reviewing, Master of the Forest: A Novel, by Nikita and Arina Boiko, was published in 2023. I was not expecting much from this read, but I was wrong.
It is a fascinating story about a 17-year-old girl committed to a mental institution for six weeks of care. The authors captured my attention from the first and held it until the end. Although I suspected the narrative was a translation from Russian to English, the sophistication of the prose was at a high level and delighted me. I had to look up several unfamiliar items like Kefir (fermented milk drink) and Semolina Porridge (a pudding made from coarsely milled durum wheat).
One odd construct initially bothered me, but I got used to it. The authors often referred to the protagonist “Asya” by her name, as the “girl,” and as the “patient,” all in the same paragraph. Something like, “Asya sat on her bed. The girl gazed out the window, and then the patient wrote in her notebook.”
The book was well-written and held my attention until the end. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the style of Anton Chekhov strongly influenced the writers, and that’s a good thing.
Reviewed by Robert Benson