The Island of Charon. Playing Another Reality. Antoine de Saint-Exupery Award

“For lovers of non-standard! It is not „business as usual“ here. This story expands the mind. Everyone has the own island, but a look from an Other Reality at the earthly life of mere mortals is a great opportunity to pause and reflect on the present and the eternal…”

“An amazing thriller for a screen adaptation! It begins with the secrets of a mysterious island, where magicians practice Voodoo, the Wish Tree grows and the Portal to other worlds functions. Then the plot smoothly flows into the story of a murder, but the identity of the murderer becomes not so important in the end, because life after death goes on, and you choose which way yourself!”

“The island is a temptation, an exam that everyone has to go through. The book makes you look at your own life differently, and the „second death“ in the cemetery of memories turns everything inside. I am impressed by the ending!”

“It is laconic and philosophically profound! A small wave turns into tsunami and plunges you headlong into the Ocean of the Divine Light through a story about love and death, in which the Creator and his plans on each of us win…”

“The Wish Tree is a trap for one’s sole! I wonder… what three wishes I would make if I were there. Would I be able to solve the riddle of Charon and get off this damned island?”

Preface

(“Behind the Scenes of ‘The Island of Charon’”)

In February 2014, suddenly (not by accident, of course, there are no coincidences!) I found myself on the gloomy island of Camotes, lost in the Pacific Ocean, where, as it turned out later, the real healers and magicians live.

I remember me thinking in pitch darkness under the black-book Sky with a billion flickering lanterns, on the shore of the Ocean (really Pacific, it stepped on the shore silently and slowly swallowing it, piece by piece, as a dessert for dinner to the accompaniment of cicadas), “if I were Agatha Christie, I would write my strongest detective story here, and if I were Alfred Hitchcock, I would shoot my scariest thriller!”

However, then, in 2014, only a charming poem knocked on my door (“A lunar lantern is hanging on a palm tree”), further included in my “Island”, which was materialized in the form of a philosophical and mystical story in… seven years. Due to the spirit of the mysterious Camotes, firmly settled in my heart, it sprouted and, gaining strength, branched out, turning into a real Tree of Wishes.

Throughout July 2021, “The Island” was boiling in my mind like a potion in an alchemist’s flask – individual ingredients were merging into a single and magical something. The boiling point reached me on the Full Moon, which happened on Athos on Friday, August 13, 2021, on the eve of the Orthodox holiday of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated in Greece from the 14th to the 15th of August (two weeks earlier than in Russia). It was the midnight between Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th that collided the Forces of Evil and Good and became fatal for the main characters of “The Island”, Alice and Mark, – instead of love, on the long-awaited first date a horror irony of fate met them.

Yes, I started writing “The Island of Charon” in the Greek village of Ouranoupolis, located on the border of Orthodox Athos, in the house of a beekeeper, where I lived in the summer (just since 2014, the year of my acquaintance with the pagan Camotes) in a small cell overlooking the tiny island of Ammouliani, the former possession of the Athos monastery of Vatopedi. Thus, two Islands appeared in the book, the one still “owned” by the magicians (Camotes) and the one, until recently, owned by the monks (Ammouliani). They create a Portal as a temptation for the souls, tearing between their Lower and Higher Selves not only during life, but also in the afterlife, for the souls, which sooner or later must make their final choice in favor of the Forces of Light or Darkness.

I started writing the book without knowing whether Mark would reach the Athos monks, who would meet Alice in the Other World, which way exactly the fate of my characters would be developed in the Other Reality, whether they would be able to avoid the traps of the Astral and leave the ghostly Island…

Have I been nursing a murder committed by the Forces of Darkness in the territory of the Forces of Light for all these seven years? It sounds scary. But no, of course, this is a mystical journey with elements of philosophy and the inside-out detective.

The reason for this is my habit of looking at Earth and earthly life from the Other Reality, that is, from the Looking Glass, from the Subtle World, located beyond our existence.

“Why?” you ask. I’m interested in looking at everything here from the Outside, from the Sky, not vice versa. It has been interesting since childhood (we all come from our childhood, and mine one is associated with many deaths), so my novels in the series “Playing Another Reality” are an attempt to understand earthly life, going beyond its framework and looking at it from the “Outside”, and at the same time to explore the “Outside”.

Thus, in ordinary detectives everyone is looking for a murderer and sooner or later finds him, and the reason of the murder is usually explained by the author in terms of logic of the human (!) mind, feelings, and emotions (desire for inheritance, revenge, envy, hatred, etc.).

However, in “The Island” the identity of the murderer does not matter much after all (although, of course, it will be revealed to the reader), and the real reason of the murder is unlikely to be correctly established even by the most experienced detective, it is known only to the Creator.

“Why?” you ask me again. Because this story is about something else… It is about the Eternal and the Transient, the Dual Soul and the Divine Spirit, the thirst for Love and its likeness. It is about the search for the Real among phantoms and illusions. About the right of choice and predestination. About the fact that life is a constant movement forward, and about Hope that cannot be lost, even if everything is already behind… because it only seems so!

The magazine “Literary Moscow”/ “Moskva literaturnaya” No. 1, 2022.

ISBN 978-5-7949-0970-8, the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, NP “Literary Republic”, 2022 – 100 pages.

V. Shiltzyn, “The Little Prince’s Rose of the Universe”

If it were possible to classify literature, then “The Island of Charon” by Alexandra Kryuchkova would be quite logical to put on the same shelf with “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The reverent attitude to the miracle of being and the models of interconnections, built from internal causes and stretched throughout the entire Universe, look similar in these authors, despite the difference in their initial circumstances and diametrically opposite endings.

Those critics who compare the prose of Alexandra Kryuchkova with Daniil Andreev are also right. The multitude of the worlds and parallel universes reflected in his “Rose of the World” could as well include the constructions found in her novel “Confessions of a Ghost” and in the story “The Island of Charon”. The power of logical dependencies, filigreed by Kryuchkova, makes these works no less plausible than the philosophical bestseller of the famous mystic.

Alexandra Kryuchkova’s prose built an invisible bridge between two previously unconnected authors of the past. “The Little Prince” of Exupery took care of the rose, and the universal phenomenon of Daniil Andreev also turned out to be a rose, but for him it was already the “Rose of the World”. Taking up the relay race of generations, Alexandra Kryuchkova invisibly and delicately takes care of the very same rose.

Vadim Shiltzyn,

member of the Union of Writers of Russia,

laureate of literary awards

The newspaper “Poetograd” No. 4 (400), 2022.

B. Mikhin, “A detective fairy tale for adults”

You shouldn’t be sure of anything, because “everyone has their own island here”, although not always it is an island, and not everywhere…

Then, what is “The Island” by Alexandra Kryuchkova?

Is it a fairy tale for adults? – Yes, sure. It is full of romance and sadness of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and of “standing on the edge” from Max Fry.

Is it a mystery detective? – Undoubtedly. We see the classic dramaturgical “slide”, a three-act scheme, and it keeps you in suspense till the end.

Is it a love story? – It’s also true. The emotions hidden beneath the outward calmness of the main character are going wild! Until the last breath and even after it, she is looking for earthly love and cognizes reality (well, or non-reality, as you like) in a not rational, not linear way.

“The Island of Charon” by Alexandra Kryuchkova is variegated and multifaceted, but that’s what makes it so remarkable! Besides, the brightest creative successes usually happen somewhere at the junction, and the genius manifests itself out of standards, going beyond the statistical average.

However, you shouldn’t be sure of anything, because…

…“everyone has their own island here!”

Boris Mikhin,

member of the Union of Writers of Russia,

laureate of literary awards

The newspaper “Poetograd” No. 4 (400), 2022.

E. Tallenika, “Magic captivity”

(“The Magic Captivity of Alexandra Kryuchkova’s Prose”)

I am holding in my hands a philosophical and mystical thriller “The Island of Charon”, which received several literary awards in 2021: “Ocean, Wind, Sand and Stars” after A. de Saint-Exupery (Open Literary Club “Response”), “Another Reality” after Leonid and Daniil Andreev (Creative Center “Clouds of Inspiration”), “Running on the Waves” after A. S. Grin (Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia together with the Museums of A.S. Grin in Feodosia and Stary Krym), “Case No.” 2021 after Alfred Hitchcock and “The Book of the XXI century” in the nomination “Wings” after A. de Saint-Exupery (Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia together with Non-commercial Partnership “Literary Republic”)1. However, I’ve studied some reviews to decide whether to read it or not.

And I begin reading the book to the music from Christopher Nolan’s film “Interstellar”, which appears almost out of nowhere and sounds like a refrain on that very Island. I recreate the reality of events, because it’s to this music that the reader is about to learn how tender the embrace of even the most horrible death can be.

“Everyone has their own island here…”

The music of the stars and planets places me to the space-time tunnel “Island” – “Island”, one of them is in the Sun Book, and the other one is in the Moon Book. Christopher Nolan with his film crew beneath my windows of the hotel on Tatari Street in Tallinn, 2019, immediately came up to my mind. I was watching the process of making his new film “Tenet” from the inside.

Nolan was focused and serious. He gave the command to start.

And I see Alexandra writing her “Island”:

…The Creator, the Ocean, the Sky, the Wish Tree, the Moon Book and the Sun Book…

Yes, that’s right, like that – with a capital letter and nothing else.

And this is not an artistic technique, but the essence of the author’s values – the system of coordinates of her Universe, in which the main word “Love” turns out to be so impossibly huge and holy that it becomes unpronounceable!

However, it is Love that permeates everything and all around: a randomly met person without anatomical signs, and the Girl looking for her mother in the Ocean, and the Boy, her “little prince”, asking for a lantern not for himself, but for the Girl, because on this Island every wish can be fulfilled by the Wish Tree, and even the barefoot Old Man, who has nothing left but black birds and other people’s memories, the fact that touches me to the core…

This fragile, not too sociable girl-woman with Tsvetaeva’s haircut, who frankly informs that all those, who has sunk into her soul, lie without moving a muscle, and they are YOU yourself (!), manages to achieve by an apparently simple but obviously magical narration a hail of my tears!

It is incomprehensible, but Alexandra Kryuchkova, who has already grown in her literary work to the level of philosophical Thought, penetrating into the depths of the Universe and leading us, readers, step by step along the Stairway to the Sky with each of her books, remains in her soul a naive child, still discovering Love and Peace, Good and Evil, and surprising us with the purity and sincerity of the pronounced, “I WANT!”

And ME TOO!

I want to visit this Island, too!

The Island with no electricity, Internet, air conditioning, where “our consciousness does not care if something happens only in thoughts or in reality, because the reaction of the body is always the same.”

The Island, where the water from the Lake of Lovers is not usual, not mineral, but dead and not sparkling, because there is simply no other water there, however, you cannot drown in such water, because you can breathe in it!

The Island, where a Philippine fisherman with Athos rosary hacks and glitches my time as if it could have any meaning on the Island of Magicians, because it is always the Full Moon on the clock, and this Time is the best (!), although only for catching Fish with a long nose and shamanic treats, such as blood with milk (!), the potion with a limited shelf life; the main thing is not to fall for the bait of black magicians, who put the spirit of a dead person into a bewitched one…

To sail away!

To sail away from the world where it’s possible to destroy an ancient Gothic church for the sake of a coal mining, to suicide due to unpaid bank interest on a business loan, and it is not considered shameful to steal ideas – if it were someone else’s bag, then – yes… otherwise…

To sail away to the Island, where one’s dreams are memories, from which I would finally find out why “we were ly so afraid of losing each other even before meeting in a new quality, that we put off all conversations for later…”

To the Island, where you’ll hardly be able to answer immediately the question of the Stargazer, “Do you really believe that you ended up here by accident?” But you’ll have an opportunity to think about the meaning of your life, although only until the high tide, creeping as quiet (!) water, like a loving monster, because “The Ocean comes here silently”.

To the Island, from which it is so difficult to disappear, because “everybody has their own ferry”, but it has the right never to come for you, because it does not have any schedule, or rather, it depends solely on you.

To the Island, where you can kill only your own selfish Self, and no theft is possible, because there is nothing to steal there, the most valuable thing is the light… of a lantern, and it is exclusively YOURS…

Of course, both the Island itself and its main characters, existing in reality, have their own beautiful names, but, as for me personally, they are no longer so important, because they would be displaced from memory by an amazing feeling of freedom (!) from the present, the past and the future, which I got while sitting, wrapped my legs in a plaid… or rather, in captivity – yes, in the magic captivity of Alexandra Kryuchkova’s prose.

Elena Tallenika,

member of the Union of Writers of Russia,

laureate of international literary awards

The newspaper “Literary News” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”) No. 11—12 (197—198), 2021.

S. Bersenev, “Another Reality”

(“Alexandra Kryuchkova revealed the secret of Charon”)

I am familiar with the work of the famous Moscow writer Alexandra Kryuchkova not by hearsay. Back in 2012, I was lucky enough to be present at her personal literary evening at the House of the Near Abroad by A. Solzhenitsyn at Taganka, where she looked great in two capacities at once: as a poet and as a songwriter. Her performance inspired me so much that I wrote one of my most significant poems “I say you ‘hello’! ”, quoted in the epigraph Alexandra’s words. Later, in January 2017, at the same House took place a presentation of the grandiose film “Holy Russia” by A. Kulyamin (based on the book “Holy Russia. Voices of Russian poets”), which features the heartfelt poems of A. Kryuchkova as well.

And now, a few years later, when, being the chairman of the jury and head of the Creative Center “Clouds of Inspiration”, I got acquainted with her mystical thriller “The Island of Charon”, submitted to the literary competition “Another Reality” organized in honor of mystical writers Leonid and Daniil Andreev, Alexandra Kryuchkova revealed herself to me in yet another capacity – as a deep and thoughtful prose writer.

The very title of the book makes it clear that we are not going to have a trivial turning over of mundane platitudes, but a journey into painstaking philosophical reflections. From the first pages, we are immersed in that very “Another Reality”, where the earthly life and death of the main character are closely interconnected with invisible otherworldly Forces of Darkness and Light, and the plot unfolds on a mysterious island, where “everything is wrong”, since it is located in the Astral World. But does an afterlife exist in principle? And if so, how is that World organized? What is it “the judgment” of a soul? What price does each of us have to pay for our deeds?

Unresolved tasks and unfinished works, mistakes made during life and affection for earthly things, and even unfulfilled dreams lead the soul to the island, whose lighthouse is the Wish Tree, but “The Wish Tree is a trap…”

And it is no coincidence that the owner of the Island lives in a house in the Cemetery of Memories – the reminiscences of dear to the heart people are haunting the main character.

Can the described by Alexandra Kryuchkova in “The Island…” be exactly like this in reality? We don’t know, but surely, each of us, approaching the last line, asks the same questions, to which the main character is looking for and finds answers. The author openly expresses her opinion on the possibility of cognition the Truth in a dialogue with Charon.

“…everything that surrounds you is an illusion. Only those who can refuse it will discover the Truth.”

“But the only way to understand completely what’s going on here is to go beyond what’s going on. So, theoretically, everyone who is here now needs to leave the Astral World?”

“Correct. The character of the movie will not see the whole movie until he moves himself in the auditorium.”

Unlike most incoherent and far-fetched fantasy, “The Island”, emerged at the intersection of genres (love story, detective, mysticism and philosophy), keeps the reader in suspense from the first to the last page. The search for mutual love leads to the investigation of one’s murder in the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers and ends with unraveling of Charon’s secret to realize the transition of the soul to the next step of the endless staircase to the Sky.

In my opinion, one of the main goals of the book is to convey to the reader the importance of taking responsibility for his own deeds, since each person almost always has the freedom of choice,

“But… pay attention to the fact that the Creator doesn’t act against your will and never deprives anyone of the right to choose.”

…as well as the importance of forgiveness, because the main character accepts the Creator’s plan for her own death and eventually forgives her murderer.

“I don’t wish you any harm… You are right. It was necessary for some reason. Goodbye…”

There is nothing superfluous in the book. All the events and dialogues of the characters are carefully verified and thought out. There is no artificially built-in abstruse, “The Island of Charon” is easy to read, but at the same time it is a serious work that deserves attention no less than similar philosophical works in the field of so-called “Another Reality”, from “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery to “The Rose of the World” by Daniil Andreev.

According to the decision of the jury of the Creative Center “Clouds of Inspiration”, Alexandra Kryuchkova was announced the winner of the “Another Reality” 2021 competition after Leonid and Daniil Andreev. We wish Alexandra inexhaustible creative inspiration and new victories on the Literary Olympus!

Sergei Bersenev,

Honored Writer of the Moscow City Organization

of the Union of Writers of Russia,

Head of the Creative Center “Clouds of Inspiration”,

The newspaper “Literary News” (“Literaturnye Izvestia”)

No. 3 (201), 2022.

http://litiz.ru/arch.html

https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30735

I. Antonova, “The Ghost Ship”

I read “The Island of Charon” by Alexandra Kryuchkova in one breath. I am shocked. In my opinion, it is a masterpiece! I haven’t read anything like this before. It is a modern parable with a deep philosophical meaning, hidden behind a transparent, well-balanced form. The author offers her own concept of immortality.

The main characters have something in common with the characters of Alexander Grin, with the little prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and with the sad mermaid of Hans Christian Andersen. Assol can be guessed in the protagonist’s features, although, instead of the happy “Scarlet Sails”, she is destined to meet the Ship full of Ghosts.

The boundaries between reality and fantasy are so blurred that the plot twists and turns are impossible to predict! There are no random details in the book, they are all deeply symbolic, and the Greek myths, passed through the heart, gain a second life. Poems are harmoniously interspersed in prose, giving the story a special intimacy. However, the entire text is pure poetry! It seems that a magical film about the worlds of water and sky, love and death is unfolding before your eyes.