New York: Riverhead Books, 2000. dj. Hardcover first edition - Written as a tribute to her mother's heroism, this is the story of an 8 year old girl and her mother, evacuted with her family from Leningrad when the Germans laid seige to it in 1941. Her brother, sister and grandmother all died on the journey or shortly after their arrival in a remote Cossack village, leaving only Elena and her mother to struggle for survival. Translated from the Russian by the author's son, Vadim Mahmoudov. 176 pp. ISBN: 1-57322-1538.