Zulejka opens her eyes

"To reach the goal, one has only one thing to do - to go."

The debut of a young Tatar writer is set against the backdrop of major historical events in the Soviet Union in the period 1930-1946.

Thirty-year-old Zulejka is a model of an obedient wife. Submissive and meek, resigned to the brutal treatment of her cruel husband and the psychological abuse of her despotic mother-in-law. Life in her small Tatar village is relatively quiet. At least she thinks so, until the day her husband is executed by communist soldiers. Zulejka is exiled to Siberia and forced to leave everything she knows behind. Yet she begins to build a new life in the harsh, desolate wilderness and discovers an inner strength she never knew she had. As we watch the heroine's existence change from one of oppressive domestic servility to something catastrophically worse (the author reminds us of how brutal the Soviet system was...), we see one woman's determination not only to survive, but to thrive in the face of the greatest adversity.

In February 2022, Guzel Yachina published an open letter condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.