Review: "Maya & Natasha" by Elyse Durham

Maya & Natasha by Elyse Durham
Published February 2025 via Mariner Books
★★★★

For twin sisters Maya and Natasha, there is only one future: born the daughters of a ballerina during the Siege of Leningrad and raised in the theatre, they have never known anything but dance. Natasha is the fiery one and Maya the quiet one, and they dream of dancing together in the Kirov—until they learn that the Kirov, which tours internationally, will take only one of them to lessen the risk of defection. And so the fabric of their lives begins to unravel.

Being seventeen is an exercise in cruelty. Those unfortunate enough to be so know a little of the world, a little less of love, and less still of themselves, but not enough of any of these to avoid heartache. (loc. 891*)

I love ballet books, despite having no ballet background myself; I loved this one more for its so specific time and place as context. Were Maya and Natasha being raised in the ballet world in, say, contemporary New York, their trajectories would be wildly different than they are here; even if they found themselves competing for the same roles or the same company spot, their options beyond that company spot would be quite different than they are deep behind the Iron Curtain.

But the senior dancers busied themselves the same as always: they went to class; they leapt and spun and were commended; they stumbled and were scolded; they sat in history class and pinched their legs to try to stay awake; they stole naps in the library between classes; they snuck away to the storage closets and made love to each other, or pressed an ear to the door and listened to lovemaking and wished they were the ones inside; they ate too much; they ate too little; they sewed ribbons onto new pairs of pointe shoes and seared the ends with matches; they lifted rusty dumbbells in the gymnasium; they fell into bed and slept so hard it made them, somehow, more tired. (loc. 898)

The plot spans decades, starting as Maya and Natasha are born and then skipping ahead to their last year at the Vaganova (a, or perhaps the, premier school of ballet in Russia) and on through what follows. They are such distinct personalities, and I suspect that readers will each find themselves sympathizing more with one character over the other—and that which character you sympathize more with will tell you something, if something small, about yourself.

What is evident is how difficult it is to envision an outcome of their final exams and audition for the Kirov that will not devastate one—or both—of the sisters. It's a system set up...well, not for failure, but it's a system that ignores the humanity and personal desires of artists; there's a certain ruthlessness required in order for one to succeed, and for Natasha and Maya the questions becomes not just what but whom they are willing to sacrifice for the sake of their own futures.

How quickly the rest of it happened was a great surprise to Maya, and something she would marvel at for years afterward—how everything in your life can change in the span of time it takes to wash your hair. (loc. 3598)

All in all, an excellent debut.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.