Confession of a Ghost. F.M. Dostoevsky award. Playing Another Reality

Translated by A. A. Kryuchkova

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© Alexandra Kryuchkova, 2024

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CONFESSION OF A GHOST

 
          or “BEFORE and AFTER. 40 STEPS of NON – EXISTENCE.
                               MATRIX of the SPACE of TIME”
 
 
             a novel in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series,
 

 
     the winner of the following literary competitions and awards:
 
 
                            ·  “The ORTHODOX SOUL” 2022
    (Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia
                              with NP “Literary Republic”)
 
 
  ·  F.M. DOSTOEVSKY, “LIFE SUFFOCATES WITHOUT A GOAL” 2021
      (Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia)
 
 
                   ·  “RUSSIA-GREECE. The 21^st Century” 2020
            within the framework of the Russia-Greece Cross Year
                         of Language and Culture 2019—2020
                                    (NP “Literary Republic”)
 
 
              ·  D.L. ANDREEV, “CREATOR of the WORLDS” 2019
                              (Open Literary Club “Response”)
 

ABOUT THE BOOK

S. Il. Rudakova, “Another Reality is the prose of our life”

The prose of Alexandra Kryuchkova amazes with the art of mastering the Word, the natural spirituality of the events described, the original author’s style, not abstruse, but natural penetration into Another Reality, which is intertwined with the earthly reality in the journey of the soul, led through the labyrinths of destiny by its Guardian Angel.

The novel “Confession of a Ghost”, a book with a surprisingly delicate interweaving of the threads of a unique canvas, wonderful literary language and self-irony of the author, with a non-standard plot and an unpredictable ending in which “all guns go off”, intrigues from the moment you read the annotation.

The novel was very accurately described by Vladimir G. Boyarinov, Chairman of the Moscow city organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, during the awarding Alexandra Kryuchkova with the F. M. Dostoevsky Prize “Life suffocates without a goal”,

“Today we have the presentation of Alexandra Kryuchkova, a writer, poet, mystic, philosopher… and her book we have already written about, ‘Confession of a Ghost’. And it’s in a new cover, because this is another edition, since the book is a real boom, a boom in the book market, which we have not seen for a long time! Alexandra Kryuchkova never ceases to amaze us, summoning heralds of her mystical discoveries for revelations. The Ghost lurking under the new cover is no longer just broadcasting, it confesses its truths.”

Yes, exactly, the truths! Since it’s about the inevitable triumph of the human Spirit, the Forces of Light and Good.

“A modern novel, but it’s timeless as well. It contains many wise thoughts, if not truths. It is light and deep at the same time. Fabulous and realistic. There are no idealized characters and axioms in it, but it radiates the invisible light of the Other World. While reading, in parallel and somehow automatically, you revise your life, taking that very step aside. One gets the values revised and an irresistible desire for radical changes in one’s own matrix.”

V. V. Morozov

And let the reader not be afraid of the fact that we are on the territory of Another Reality unknown to us!

“Obviously, the author is engaged in the study of Another Reality with a methodical approach close to scientific, and her work in this area, as well as on the paradoxical properties of the Word, is comparable to the activities of an entire scientific research institute… The path of a mortal, prescribed in Heaven, seems fatally predetermined, however, the author reveals the possibilities of the Spirit in the most incorrigible circumstances and, together with representatives of the Forces of Light, extends a helping hand to all her readers!”

V. G. Shyltzin

At the same time, the language of all characters, even ghosts, is equally precise and understandable to the reader, despite the use by the author of a special vocabulary of spiritual, astrological, esoteric and other specific terms. It is amazing how easily the thread of Ariadne unfolds in search of truth and love, and the more attractive is to try on the stories of the main character Alice and find your own too.

“It would seem to be a combination of the incompatible – icons and the starry Sky, the experiences of a living person and a wandering soul, our reality and its other dimensions, hidden behind the words ‘somewhere in the Universe’. In simple and understandable words, the author makes it possible to realize the structure of the Universe and ‘become conscious’ in our reality. The earthly destiny of the main character, stories from the Library of the Universe, conversations with planetary spirits, a journey through the Spheres, walks on Athos and conversations with its inhabitants are intricately interwoven into a single narrative with an original plot and an unpredictable denouement!”

V. V. Morozov

However, the novel got noticed back in 2019, after its first edition under the title “Before and After. 40 steps of Non-existence, or the Matrix of Time Space. Confession of a Ghost”, and the reviews of the first readers were included in the preface to the second edition.

“This novel is an event in literature. The novel-symphony. The genius novel (I’m not afraid of this word!). So multifaceted and polyphonic that I got scary – what if something (with such a volume) would not link into a single whole. But each thread is woven into the carpet so harmoniously, subtly, logically and in such a simple human language that it causes sincere admiration and respect! I read it twice. The first time – in pursuit of the plot, like a mystical detective, excitedly, I could not stop, and then I breathed out and re-read it slowly, savoring the details. Having reached a certain phrase of the Guardian, suddenly, I got an insight! – I realized my destiny on Earth! My whole life scrolled instantly, and I realized what I was doing here! I wanted to cry with happiness! I thank the author for her Word, that awakens us from sleep and works such miracles!”

E.V. Erofeeva-Litvinskaya

Miracles are always around, but we often don’t pay attention to them. The prose by A. Kryuchkova is not just wonderful, but musical and cinematic. Sooner or later, Alexandra’s novels and stories will be filmed, I’m sure, and I’m not the only one.

“The author not just knows the world of the Other Space well, but masters it perfectly, lives in it, feels like a fish in water and is a real fount of knowledge. The further along you read, the more obvious the autobiographical style appears, along with talented and very light fantasy techniques. Thankfully, the dark and evil takes up less space in the novel! This is a kindly light book, without vulgarity and dirt. For those who prefer real literature, who are ready to discover something new, look at the world with an inquisitive eye, to experience and co-feel, to read between the lines and draw the appropriate conclusions for themselves… Moonlight Sonata, the background music, is used very successfully! Sounding almost imperceptibly at first, it gradually reaches a crescendo and covers you with your head… In general, the plot is so multifaceted that it creates confidence in the necessity to publish the book not only in our country, but abroad as well! And even better, with a film version!”

In. K. Butorina

The cover of the first edition of the novel was the “Ladder” icon painted on Athos (in Greece) with the blessing especially for this book, and in August 2019 the first version of the novel (subsequently edited and shortened by the author) was handed over by A. Kryuchkova with a dedicatory inscription to Archimandrite Evlogii (Ivanov), the head of the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon on Athos, to the local history museum of Ouranoupoli and to the house-museum of the local poetess and writer Joice Mary NanKivell Loch (one of the characters).

“The close connection with Orthodox childhood and later heartfelt love for Greek Athos is also reflected in the novel ‘Confession of a Ghost’, the central part of which is occupied by Athos stories and stories of local residents, as well as stories about the Saints and the wonders of their icons, recorded by the author during her trips to Ouranoupoli village, situated on the border with the Holy Mountain.”

M. Palshyna

Alexandra Kryuchkova was deservedly awarded the diploma as “the initiator and participant of the ‘Russia-Greece. The 21^st Century’ project within the framework of the Russia-Greece Cross Year of Language and Culture 2019—2020” for the novel “Confession of a Ghost”, dedicated to the Athos peninsula and the Holy Mountain in Greece, as well as “for contribution to development of international relations in the field of culture and literature” (NP “Literary Republic”, 2020).

“This book is a window to Another Reality. It’s full of Universal Love and gives hope to everyone who truly believes in it. The plot is really captivating, you try to unravel the tangle with the main character, but it keeps you in suspense to the last, slipping out of your hands… The reading is easy and interesting. The main characters become so native that the reader wants to go to Athos, enter the Dark Tower and chat with the ghost of Joice over a cup of astral tea.”

Ir. A. Antonova

In 2019, “Confession of a Ghost” was awarded Daniil Andreev Prize “Creator of the Worlds” by the Open Literary Club “Response”. The head of the club, Lyudmila Koroleva, a member of the Union of Writers of Russia, at the awarding the diploma and a name-plated statuette to the author, spoke of the “Confession” as follows,

“There are books that belong to eternity, and this is one of them… Such novels are not to be forgotten. You can re-read them at different periods of life and find something new. Perhaps the main character… remained behind the scenes. He silently watches the reader from the sky and smiles at the author.”

However, this novel has already been compared with Daniil Andreev by German Arutyunov and Vadim Shiltzyn. Sergey Bersenev (Vice-President of the Moscow Region department of the Union of Writers of Russia, Head of the Creative Center “Clouds of Inspiration”, Honored Writer of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia) honored Alexandra with a diploma of Leonid and Daniil Andreev as the winner of the competition “Another Reality” for her novel “The Island of Charon”, and all the books by A. Kryuchkova on the theme of Another Reality is close in spirit to “The Rose of the World”. At the 2021 literary contests awarding ceremony of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia, together with the NP “Literary Republic”, A. Kryuchkova was announced the winner of the “Writer of the 21^st century” competition in the nomination of Daniil Andreev for the book series “Playing Another Reality”, and a year earlier, for the same series she had been awarded the medal “For contribution to the Literature of Russia of the 21^st century” (the decision of the Board of the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia dated 16 January 2020).

Aesop-like mysterious, the works of Alexandra Kryuchkova, fortunately, exist in our reality. All her books, despite the tragic plots and the veil of death, are written for the glory of life and are permeated with the Divine Love, they direct the reader to light and goodness, leaving after reading the spiritual lightness and joy from contact with the magic of creativity!

Moreover, Another Reality is the truth of our life, thus in conclusion I’ll quote the author’s postscript to “Confession of a Ghost”,

“When you are on Athos in Ouranoupoli, find Dimitra and ask her to show you the place on the wall in her shop, where the icon of St. Peter with the keys has been materialized.”

Svetlana Il. Rudakova,

Member of the Union of Writers of Russia

The newspaper “Literary news“ №1 (199), 2022

G. Arutyunov, “F.M. Dostoevsky Award 2021”

“Confessions of a Ghost” – a unique novel of its kind, which encourages you to reflect on the topics of Another Reality and earthly visions of the soul, posthumous existence and mortal time, to think, walking with the author along her Heavenly Staircase up and down, over what in general you don’t think – was awarded F.M. Dostoevsky prize “Life suffocates without a goal” 2021 by the Moscow City Organization of the Union of Writers of Russia.

And here is mysticism (which is what happens with mystical books, by the way) – the sheet with my notes disappeared, as soon as I decided to write a review. The same thing happened to me a few years ago with Daniil Andreev’s book “The Rose of the World”. Both books (“Confession of a Ghost” and “Rose of the World”) are similar, since their authors describe visiting worlds and spaces that probably exist, manifesting only in human consciousness, like life after death – in a transformed individual consciousness or in the Universal cosmic mind (or bank of information). And it’s amazing that each of us after death can find ourselves in a unique space that opens only to him. In any case, neither before nor after Daniil Andreev, as far as I know, there were no eyewitnesses to the worlds he described. As never before I met the eyewitnesses to the worlds and spaces of Alexandra Kryuchkova. Although, probably, such specific areas are open to those like Daniil and Alexandra, not to everyone. Apparently, this is due to our lifetime interests and knowledge, which is what paves our way there.

So, the main character of the “Confession”, incarnating on Earth, passes the Heavenly Staircase through the corridors of 12 astrological Houses, symbolizing the Spheres of life in the Labyrinth of Destiny, and then returns to Heaven along the same Staircase, but in a completely different way – through the Orthodox Greek Athos, since the author clearly knows astrology and lived on the border with the Holy Mountain. However, some Saint, like St. Anthony, having read during his lifetime stories about devils and monsters that tempt a person and observing them in his dreams, after death probably continues to see them and fight with them. During 30 years of my work in the “Nature and Man” magazine as the supervisor of editorial publications on anomalous and spiritual topics, I repeatedly had to deal with similar visions (or revelations) of various Saints, but we did not publish them, because there was no link to reality. And the visions of a person and his real life, as a rule, are closely interconnected.

At first glance, fixing individual worlds is just as useless as the movements of a shaman who causes rain with his dance around the fire, with beats of a tambourine, shouts or chants, waving his hands, bouncing and body movements that are relevant only here and now. Tomorrow everything will be different – the weather, the soil, the fire, the shaman. Nevertheless, some people fix such moments, as Alexandra Kryuchkova recorded 40 steps of her Heavenly Staircase while moving along it in both directions. I believe that fixation has a hidden meaning.

The architect Brunelleschi left no drawings for the construction of the dome of the famous Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. They say that the master didn’t use drawings at all (as any shaman has no texts with him during the ceremony). Fortunately, one of Brunelleschi’s enemies, who envied his talent, watched the construction every day and secretly recorded all the stages and even the conversations of the masters and workers in his papers, thanks to which modern scientists restored the stages of construction step by step and discovered an incredible for our time fact – every day Brunelleschi compared several points of the growing dome of the cathedral with the projection of a flower bud, close to the golden ratio. Some information that scrolls through us may seem unnecessary, too fleeting, short-lived, or unbelievable to want to fix it. But if we succeed (or the soul demands it), it’s quite possible that sooner or later this information will come in handy. Not for us, but for someone who will stand on our shoulders and see what we don’t see yet and therefore don’t appreciate.

Books with fixation of the worlds and spaces of Another Reality, such as “Rose of the World” by D. Andreev and “Confession of a Ghost” by A. Kryuchkova, are needed to maintain at least a minimum level of sacrality in the society, otherwise humanity, with its predictable striving for comfort and pleasures, will become uninteresting to the Higher Mind, and either the asteroid will lead the planet to the flood that will wash mankind away, or the flood will be caused by volcanoes, which someone blocks now. Do you remember Jules Verne’s captain Nemo on his Nautilus going around underwater volcanoes (centers of activity) to put some kind of stabilizers?

Each our life is a rung on the Staircase of manifestation, an opportunity to gain a certain experience in order to enrich the thinking ocean of humanity. Perhaps, after passing through one labyrinth in this space, we’ll be switched to another and in a different one, in order to gouge spiritual galleries in the corridor of consciousness in various directions.

The Theory of Time, touched upon by Alexandra Kryuchkova in the novel, collides the Past, the Present and the Future. Time takes us beyond the boundaries of three-dimensional space, but each one at its own speed, in its own measured rhythm, that has become a unique personal code for many incarnations, allowing the Heavenly Office (or Higher Mind) to track an individual without confusing him with the others, among 107 billion people who have ever lived on Earth throughout the history of mankind, to switch automatically from one level to another, to change the direction of movement and make stops so as not to cross paths with someone or vice versa – to meet someone.

It’s also relevant the theme of the spiritual loneliness of creative people for whom Internet communication is not enough, while unanimity is important, since any stranger’s thought that is close to yours warms you like a flame of a candle or even a fire.

As for postmortem visions, the Egyptian Book of the Dead is closer to me personally, but “Confession of a Ghost” will definitely find its reader, thinking in the same information space. And the more often we probe the connections of the material world with the spiritual world, the faster we’ll reach the Age of Enlightenment, in which the spiritual life will become the reality of the overwhelming majority.

German Arutyunov,

Journalist, researcher of abnormal phenomena,

member of the Union of Journalists and of the Union of Writers of Russia,

founder of the Centre for Spiritual Development “Sphinx”

 
The newspaper “Literary news” №9 (195), 2021
 

V. G. Shyltzyn, “The 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 “Confession 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 G. Shiltzyn,

member of the Union of Writers of Russia,

laureate of literary awards

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

http://www.poetograd.ru/arch.html

http://www.poetograd.ru/nomer.php?id=30662

https://reading-hall.ru/publication.php?id=30662