From two to fifteen. My mom is in prison.

"From Two to Fifteen. My Mom is in Prison" is a book that reveals the most painful layer of contemporary Belarusian reality. A psychologist who works with political prisoners and their families has collected in it the stories of children whose life traumas are a result of repression. The book includes children's memories, dreams, and fairy tales that help them process their pain, comparisons with the stories of women and children from the Soviet era (ALZHIR camp), as well as practical recommendations on how to talk to children about politics and traumatic events. These are the testimonies of small people who speak with surprising and ruthless sincerity about what they feel when their world crumbles.

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Since 2021, the author has been working as a psychologist with political prisoners and their relatives, including children. The book presents children's memories of repressions that affected their families, collected during her practice, as well as dreams, aspirations, and fairy tales they wrote to cope with trauma. Their experiences are compared with the stories of women and children repressed during the Soviet era: a separate chapter contains witness accounts of the ALZHIR women's camp. The author's recommendations on how and why to build communication with children on political topics are also provided.

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If you want to know what is happening in Belarus today, read this book.

The author interviews children whose stories will transport you into an amazing world, much more terrifying than the adult one; it would seem that in this world, everything should still be created from love, but a child of 7-10 years old already knows things that even an adult heart cannot bear.

They tell you how some people in black laid dad on the floor and beat him with a frying pan, how a boy waited a long time for his mom from prison, and when she returned, how many days he screamed at her. Cried and screamed.
You won't read about this in computer news. Children do not let us get used to war, to Lukashenkism. They find their own words for it.

These are fearless and honest witnesses.

This work is done with talent and heart.

One wants to keep reading….

Svetlana Alexievich