With her parents gone in search of work, twelve-year-old Cristina must act as mother and father to her two younger brothers. Through her eyes, we experience a world of longing and wonder as children roam the streets of their contemporary Moldovan village. With most adults working in Italy, England, or Russia, kids growup fast here, imitating the gestures of their absent parents, and chasing fading memories of ordinary family life. In a rural, abandoned community, Corobca finds a whole world, one filled with human and animal strangeness, cruelty, and friendship, and persistent, deep yearnings for family. In Cristina's village, life may spiral into disorder, but it does so in a way that is spellbinding and creative, joyous and composed

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