Farewell to Russia: Memories of When I Was Kola

By Nikolai Prestia

Growing up in 1990s Russia in a family marked by poverty, substance abuse, and neglect, Kola and his sister are eventually admitted into the orphanage system. Here, Kola comes face to face with a different but equally daunting challenge - navigating an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile world haunted by the absence of his mother. The ensuing journey, which eventually culminates in the adoption by an Italian family, alternates moments of both trauma and deliverance, while asking fundamental questions about our ability to reconcile ourselves with unfathomable loss.

Harrowing yet lyrical, Nikolai Prestia's prize-winning 2021 novel is a testament to the duality of memory in its ability to both hurt and heal, and to the transformative power of those figures, adults and peers alike, who contribute to a child's development. Translated into English as part of a collaboration between the author and a mother-daughter translator duo, the novel serves up a wrenching glimpse into the back stories that often precede the adoption of an older child.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1978840896
• ISBN13: 9781978840898
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher