A haunting Russian tale about the environmental legacy of the Cold War. Yerzhan grows up in a remote part of Kazakhstan where the Soviets tests atomic weapons. As a young boy he falls in love with the neighbour's daughter and one evening, to impress her, he dives into a forbidden lake. The radio-active water changes Yerzhan. He will never grow into a man. While the girl he loves becomes a beautiful woman. Why Peirene chose to publish this book: ?Like a Grimm's Fairy tale, this story transforms an innermost fear into an outward reality. We witness a prepubescent boy's secret terror o