Yelena Moskovich: The Natashas

Now Polina’s and Béatrice’s breath was made up of all these things. Stone dust, avalanches, Arabella’s legs. It joined a certain low humming of billions of voices. It took its place among all of these voices, and was at home everywhere.

Do-bee do-bee-doo… all the voices hummed. A pair of legs began to spread and the room filled with applause.

Dear family, thank you. The Kantolinskys and the Moskovichs. Valentin, Valeriy, Irina, Lev, Isabella, Alexandra Burlet… From your roots, my hands do write.

To my extended family, Rick Kinner, his library, his big heart, Kaisa Kinnunen, my first reader and sister-seeker, Tessa Hays-Nordin, for our questions, Jethro Massey, co-detective of the troubling narrative, Linda Lämmle, who always made me feel like a revolutionary, Laura Woody, our Mama Stein, Maria Mocerino, fellow scavenger, Nicholas-Alexander Miloš Mestas, my Slavic-Mexican bratik , Sara Franceschi, for always receiving my writing with such care, Scott Cooper, for giving me your painting of the two-handed dream.

Thank you for kindness, your support, Vanja Hedberg, Spela Kasal, Nadja Spiegelman, Erin Plunkett, Emer O’Carroll, Jayne Batzofin, Jeanne Gradowski, Rik Haber, Olga Tsiporkina, the Divinskys, the Davidsons. To my theatre days, and all those luminaries, mes cousins , Misha Arias de la Cantolla, Zoumana Méïté. Jesse Posner, our lifetimes in Sarajevo. To my playwriting mentor in Boston, Andrew Clarke. You believed, you encouraged. It was no small thing.

Thank you to my healers, Claire Finney, Silke Schroeder.

Hannah, thank you, for your skilled eye, for your dedication to authenticity, and to everyone at Serpent’s Tail who had a hand in this, Nick, Sarah, Ruthie, Pete.

Jane, thank you for being at my side at every step, with resource and compassion.

And thank you , whoever you are, who came with me in the plane from the Ukraine to America, then again from America to Paris, and remains generous and ready.

Yelena Moskovichwas born in 1984 in the Ukraine (former USSR) and emigrated to the US with her family in 1991. After graduating with a degree in playwriting from Emerson College, Boston, she moved to Paris to study at the Lecoq School of Physical Theatre, and later for a Master’s degree in Art, Philosophy and Aesthetics from Université Paris 8. Her plays have been produced in the US, Vancouver, Paris, and Stockholm. She lives in Paris. The Natashas is her first novel.

A complete catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library on request

The right of Yelena Valer’evna Moskovich to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Copyright © 2016 Yelena Valer’evna Moskovich

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, dead or alive, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in 2016 by Serpent’s Tail,

an imprint of Profile Books Ltd

3 Holford Yard

Bevin Way

London WC1X 9HD

www.serpentstail.com

eISBN 978 1 78283 163 1

Designed and typeset by Crow Books