Lada Luzina Киевские ведьмы: Мех и крест - Kievskie vedmy: Mech i krest The Witches of Kiev, The Sword and The Cross Novel. Folio, Kharkov 2005, 427 pages SOLD to dtv Germany With the four chalk hills at its centre Kiev was and is the focal point of Slavic witchcraft. Belief in this witchcraft is deeply rooted in the Ukrainian mentality and nearly one in three women in Kiev has a practising witch, magician or healer in her ancestry. Kiev has been considered not only the centre of the Christian orthodox faith but also the witches’ capital since time immemorial. Many Russian-Ukrainian artists (Mikhail Vrubel), authors (Mikhail Bulgakov) and musicians (Modest Mussorgsky) have drawn on this tradition. The protagonists are three young women from contemporary Kiev: Masha – a respectable, highly intelligent history student who still lives with her parents while harbouring shy adoration for one of her fellow students. Dasha – a singer in a nightclub, she has seen it all, is street wise and down to earth. Katya - a successful business woman, emotionally cold, lonely and in the depths of her heart full of the desire for love. "By chance" the three of them meet for the first time at precisely the time and place of an old Kiev witch’s death. Her magical powers are transferred to the three of them. From then on Dasha no longer just potters around the town on her old moped draped in the flag of the Orange Revolution. Suddenly she is able to ride above the domes on a broomstick and can’t believe it herself. In fact all three of them want to be free of these unbelievable talents. However, when two ritual murders take place in the town and Mascha’s father comes under suspicion they have to intervene. They discover a Satanist altar in the catacombs of Kiev. With secret keys they gain access not only to the houses where Bulgakov and Vrubel lived but also to the era in which they lived. The satanic encounter with the past provides them with the key to the crimes of today. When Vrubel’s DÄMON painting is then slashed in the Kiev museum it becomes clear: the real demon has returned to Kiev and none other than the three witches are able to protect the town from his curse and from a third murder. The settings are all so authentic that the book can almost be read as an alternative guide book. With scintillating ideas, witty dialogue, an exciting plot and a detailed portrait of both contemporary and historical Kiev the author tempts the reader into a world where reality is hardly distinguishable from fantasy. Who would have thought it in the enlightened Europe of the 21st century: the witches are back! The WITCHES OF KIEV is written as a trilogy: Vol. 1 The Sword and The Cross/ Vol. 2 The Shooting in the Opera/ Vol. 3 The Birth of Moscow.