Farewell to Matyora (1976)

This is the story of the last summer of a fictional island village, Matyora, which is slated to be flooded in the fall upon completion of a hydroelectric dam. The old people have stayed behind to tend their gardens, watch over any remaining animals and keep watch over the homes of those that have left for the new settlement on the mainland. Darya and her old friends witness first-hand the preparations for the flood: the desecration of their cemetery so that crosses and markers won't float up in the new body of water formed by the dam, burning of brush and trees, the indifference of the youth to the loss of their rodina. The tsar larch, alone, defies destruction by the men charged with deforesting the island. The novel beautifully depicts the conflict between the old and the new, Russian life and Soviet life, and the high price of progress. Darya, Bogodul and the others are the last on the island. They say farewell to it in their own way. ( )