Oxana Palatskaya
I was born on a very small island in the Baltic Sea, in Kronstadt, and grew up between languages, cultures, and shifting ideas of belonging. I studied linguistics and philology, traveled extensively, and eventually settled in northern Italy, where writing became the place where all these fragments could meet.
I have written across genres and for different ages, but I am consistently drawn to one central question: what happens to human identity when it is observed, measured, or reshaped by external systems?
Borderline Human: Persona grew out of this long-standing curiosity, intensified by the contemporary world we inhabit. We increasingly live inside structures that classify us—algorithms, profiles, performance metrics—often presented as tools for improvement. I wanted to explore what remains of the self when optimization becomes a moral expectation, and when inner life is treated as data rather than experience.
The novel was inspired not by technology alone, but by psychology: the quiet compromises people make to remain functional, acceptable, or “efficient.” Lena’s story reflects my interest in liminal states—those unstable borders between autonomy and compliance, memory and revision, authenticity and adaptation.
I write to question certainty, not to offer answers. If this book leaves readers unsettled, reflective, or quietly resistant, then it has done what it was meant to do.