When Mitya was two years old, he
swallowed his grandmother's sewing needle. For his family, it marks
the beginning of the end, the promise of certain death. For Mitya, it
is a small, metal treasure that guides him from within. As he grows,
his life mirrors the uncertain future of his country, which is
attempting to rebuild itself after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
torn between its past and the promise of modern freedom. Mitya finds
himself facing a different sort of ambiguity: is he a boy, as
everyone keeps telling him, or is he not quite a boy, as he often
feels?
After suffering horrific abuse from
his cousin Vovka who has returned broken from war, Mitya embarks on a
journey across underground Moscow to find something better, a place
to belong. His experiences are interlaced with a retelling of a
foundational Russian fairytale, Koschei the Deathless, offering an
element of fantasy to the brutal realities of Mitya's everyday life.
Told with deep empathy, humor, and a
bit of surreality, Little
Foxes Took Up Matches is
a revelation about the life of one community in a country of turmoil
and upheaval, glimpsed through the eyes of a precocious and
empathetic child, whose heart and mind understand that there are
often more than two choices. An arresting coming of age, an
exploration of gender, a modern folktale, a comedy about family,
Katya Kazbek breaks out as a new voice to watch.