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Reviewed by Alma Boucher for Readers' Favorite
Mariya is the first book in the Empty Mankind series by Milha Vek. Mariya grows up feeling abandoned by her father after he leaves the family for another man. This leaves Mariya with a hollow and empty ache in her chest. The Russians called this feeling 'pustota.' After Mariya’s father dies of liver failure, she sees her future with clarity. Mariya believes she will meet someone, pretend to love them, have children, ruin it, and repeat everything, as her father did. Milha was born in Krasnodar, and also has trauma; Milha discovered his father dead with a knife in his chest before immigrating to Austria. Mariya and Milha know what love should be like, but they have never experienced it. When Mariya and Milha meet in Vienna, their shared emptiness draws them together in an unhealthy relationship shaped by the pustota they have inherited, an absence molded perfectly to the memory of what should have been.
The pace in Mariya by Milha Vek is easy, and the chapters flow into one another. The atmosphere in the book is heavy and emotional. The themes of being abandoned, feeling empty, and trauma were handled with great care and sensitivity. The writing was engaging, and I could experience the hurt and trauma the characters endured. The twists in the story are suspenseful, and I could not turn the pages fast enough; I had to know what would happen next. The characters are strong and honest. They found resonance in each other through the emptiness they shared. They were two damaged souls who tried to fill their emptiness with each other. The book is beautifully written and has all the components to be a great success.
