Matryoshka represents the feminist notion that females
are human beings with agency; it presents the good, the bad and the
incomprehensible. A mixture of confessional and imagined writing, it explores
motherhood, love, death and violence. There are saints and sinners, witches,
celebrities and mischievous cats against a backdrop of Russian folklore and
magical realism. It is haunting and melancholic, unsettling and dark, but there
are also little pockets of comedy and relief. The poems take the reader on an
unpredictable trail through the enchanting forest of the female.