Love's Terror
And Other Stories
Published by Diogenes as Liebesterror
Original Title: Terror ljubvi
The young actress Nonna and her director Zarenkov were an attractive couple even if he was twenty years older than she was. It could have been a remake of Pygmalion. But »after all, Dr. Higgins did not have a mother-in-law.« A mother's love is something beautiful, but when a mother gets involved in the love life of her grown-up daughter, it becomes a problem. At the latest when her mother says after a secret meeting with the ex-wife of her future son-in-law: »Just what I was afraid of: He is a big mouth and a ladykiller«, things can become critical. And when mummy also manages to move in with the freshly married couple, love's terror is on the menu, because after all, a mother only wants the best for her child. Four stories about all kinds of love: motherly love, charitable love, erotic love, and romantic love.
Contemporary Literature
224 pages
2008

978-3-257-06643-2
Viktorija
Tokarjewa

Viktorija Tokarjewa, born in St. Petersburg in 1937, worked as a music teacher before studying scriptwriting at the Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. 15 films have been made from her scripts. She published her first story in 1964 and since then has devoted herself entirely to writing. Today she is one of Russia’s most popular and bestselling authors. She now lives near Moscow.

Photo: © Isolde Ohlbaum

Quotes

Emma, Cologne
»Tokarjewa knows about love. And she writes about it. Inescapably. With power, precision, pain and humour.«