LITTLE FOXES TOOK UP MATCHES

Folklore enlivens a queer coming-of-age story set in 1990s Russia.

Mitya is born in the Soviet Union, but by the time he's 5, the USSR is dissolved and the adults in his life—his parents, Yelena and Dmitriy, his grandmother Alyssa, and his cousin Vovka, a Chechen War veteran—see their lives and livelihoods change with the nation. Likewise, Mitya’s understanding of himself and the world transforms as he enters adolescence. The defining moment of Mitya’s infancy is one of potential catastrophe: While babysitting, Alyssa accidentally drops an embroidery needle on the rug. She, along with the rest of the family, becomes convinced that Mitya has swallowed it and that the ingested needle will eventually kill him. Mitya survives, however, and comes to see the needle as a link to Koschei the Deathless, a gender-nonconforming character from Russian fairy tales who achieves immortality by hiding “the needle that is his death” where no one can find it. Kazbek deftly intertwines tales of Koschei’s exploits in heaven and hell with Mitya’s misadventures around Moscow as the preteen navigates a first crush and considers whether he wants to be a girl, a boy, both, or neither. The novel’s subject matter is weighty—Mitya survives sexual abuse, experiences transphobic violence, and struggles to come to terms with systemic inequality and corruption while seeking justice for a murdered homeless man—but Kazbek's incisive prose and Mitya’s enduring compassion keep this debut novel from feeling maudlin or exploitative.

A rich and moving look at a child in the midst of self-discovery. As dark as a Brothers Grimm fairy tale—and as magical.