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Start giftingLittle Foxes Took Up Matches
Narrator
Jefferson Mays
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Length
10 hours 18 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Little Foxes Took Up Matches is a queer coming-of-age story set in late 90s Moscow and narrated by Mitya—a beautiful, observant, genderqueer boy. Amidst a dysfunctional family, Mitya admires his resourceful babushka and tries to avoid his predatory, wartorn cousin. In the process of avenging the death of his friend, a kind homeless man who accepted Mitya’s queerness, Mitya befriends an older Ukrainian girl, and the pair comes to know Moscow and themselves by way of the underground music scene. Despite many difficult obstacles, Mitya is incredibly resilient and spirited—one of the most memorable characters I’ve read in a long time. With folklore as its guiding light—Mitya’s chronicle of self-discovery is paralleled by an interluding fairytale—this character-driven novel is ultimately a queer love story, a love letter to queer youth. Jefferson Mays’ narration is a perfect complement.”
— Mary • Raven Book Store
Bookseller recommendation
“Mitya, an 11 year old, is growing up in Post-Soviet Russia. His family is struggling through the economic turmoil while he tries to come to terms with his gender identity. His best friends are street kids and a homeless man. He is tormented by a cousin who returns from the Chechen war and lives with his family because his father died in Afghanistan. The story is woven together with a Russian fairy tale. A captivating plot that kept me interested, and the setting and descriptions of everyday life in Russia during those years drew me in as well.”
— Amy • A Great Good Place for Books
Summary
An arresting coming of age, an exploration of gender, a modern folktale, a powerful portrait of a family—Katya Kazbek breaks out as a new voice to watch.
When Mitya was two years old, he swallowed his grandmother’s sewing needle. For his family, it marks the beginning of the end, the promise of certain death. For Mitya, it is a small, metal treasure that guides him from within. As he grows, his
life mirrors the uncertain future of his country, which is attempting to rebuild itself after the collapse of the Soviet Union, torn between its past and the promise of modern freedom. Mitya finds himself facing a different sort of ambiguity: is he
a boy, as everyone keeps telling him, or is he not quite a boy, as he often feels?
After suffering horrific abuse from his cousin Vovka who has returned broken from war, Mitya embarks on a journey across underground Moscow to find something better, a place to belong. His experiences are interlaced with a retelling
of a foundational Russian fairytale, Koschei the Deathless, offering an element of fantasy to the brutal realities of Mitya’s everyday life.
Told with deep empathy, humor, and a bit of surreality, Little Foxes Took Up Matches is a revelation about the life of one community in a country of turmoil and upheaval, glimpsed through the eyes of a precocious and empathetic child,
whose heart and mind understand that there are often more than two choices. An arresting coming of age, an exploration of gender, a modern folktale, a comedy about family, Katya Kazbek breaks out as a new voice to watch.