History Literature / TheYearOfTheRat

Meanwhile, she is sent to work at the farm of her wealthy uncle (her stepfather'a brother) Vikiy, nicknamed Marmot. There Ryska, though starting as shy and restrained, makes friends with a delinquent but brave and good-humored young boy Zhar (in Russian "heat") and a kindly servant woman Fessya, who acts as a mother-figure to her.

* SelfMadeMan: Vikiy aka Marmot. He is the most prosperous farmer in the region, and it's rumored he began with "a calf worth barely have a srebr", srebr being a silver coin.

* StockholmSyndrome: The characters' landlady from Losiniye Yamy (Elkpits) tells Ryska a story of her youth, which includes her... ahem, sort-of romance with one of the Savrians who occupied the town. It's hinted that she still misses the lustful Savrian (who was killed) a lot more than her husband (after all of his cows died in an epizootic, leaving him penniless, he turned to alcohol and harlots, and died before the war).

* TheBartender: Lots of them, and all practically the same: each advertising their bar (the feedery, as these things are called in Savria and Rintar) and trying to get as much money from the guests as possible. The only one to stand out from the row is Siva, Alk's employer, who is kind, but not without sarcasm here and there, sometimes rather childish. He falls in love with Ryska and proposes to her. Unexpectedly to both of them, she declines.

* CantActPervertedTowardsLoveInterest: Subverted. That's definitely not a rule of Alk's. While he's slowly falling in love with Ryska, he never changes his behavior.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Zhar and Alk, both very popular with girls, are a thief and a perverted vagabond respectively.

* CantActPervertedTowardsALoveInterest: Subverted. That's definitely not a rule of Alk's. While he's slowly falling in love with Ryska, he never changes his behavior.

* CantActPervertedTowardsALoveInterest: Subverted. That's definitely not a rule of Alk's. [[spoiler:Even when he and Ryska, both thinking the other dead, meet again after the climax. Ryska sobs in his arms, while he calmly remarks, for example, that she must have been glad to get rid of him and Zhar and that he's not listening to her cries anyway.]]

Marmot arranges a marriage between Ryska and his own lazy, infantile son, and the infuriated Ryska runs away. She goes to town in hopes of meeting Zhar, but on her way finds a mysterious talking rat called Alk, extremely hateful and sarcastic – who is not what he seems.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Practically everyone notices the chemistry going on between Alk Haskil and Ryska, at least by the beginning of the second book. While Alk is constantly taunting Ryska, and Ryska thinks she hates him.

* JustFriends: Ryska and Zhar. He admits she is very attractive and playfully flirts with her sometimes, but overall their relationship is platonic.

* SlapSlapKiss: Ryska's relationship with Alk. Though they technically don't kiss during the novel. Yet.

'''The Year of the Rat''' (2009) is a two-book Russian fantasy novel by Olga Gromyko. It is set in an alternative universe in two countries, Rintar sand Savria, former allies, now always at odds. The main character is a Rintarian village girl Ryska (meaning in Russian "little lynx"), naïve, simple-minded, nine years old at the beginning. She is deeply unhappy at home, because she is the daughter of a Savrian soldier who raped Ryska's mother during the last Savro-Rintarian war. Everyone in the village despises the girl, save perhaps for a weak-willed boy who pities Ryska but doesn't stop his friends from taunting her, and the village priest (Savria and Rintar have the same religion, that being a cult of the good goddess Holga and her mischievous husband Sashiy).

'''The Year of the Rat''' (2008-2009) is a two-book Russian fantasy novel by Olga Gromyko. It is set in an alternative universe in two countries, Rintar sand Savria, former allies, now always at odds. The main character is a Rintarian village girl Ryska (meaning in Russian "little lynx"), naïve, simple-minded, nine years old at the beginning. She is deeply unhappy at home, because she is the daughter of a Savrian soldier who raped Ryska's mother during the last Savro-Rintarian war. Everyone in the village despises the girl, save perhaps for a weak-willed boy who pities Ryska but doesn't stop his friends from taunting her, and the village priest (Savria and Rintar have the same religion, that being a cult of the good goddess Holga and her mischievous husband Sashiy).

Ryska's life begins to change when she encounters a half-crazed old man, a former Wanderer (practicing magician in this world). After the meeting, a strange gift awakens in the girl – she begins to foresee and sometimes change the future.

** An opposite kind of RetiredBadass - the grandpa from Vikiy's farm. He's no one's grandpa, but everyone calls him so. He used to be a military doctor in Savro-Rintarian wars, but now he does small tasks at the farm. He is quite a [[ParentalSubstitute Grandparental Substitute]] for Ryska: tells her stories, teaches her to read, comforts her when she's frightened, and is the only one to rush for her rescue when she comes face-to-face with a rabid fox.

** An opposite kind of RetiredBadass - the grandpa from Vikiy's farm. He's no one's grandpa, but everyone calls him so. He used to be a military doctor in Savro-Rintarian wars, but now he does small tasks at the farm. He is quite a [[ParentalSubstitute Grandparental Substitute]] for Zhar and especially Ryska.

* SpoiledSweet: Her Highness Isenara, the Tsarevna of Savria. She's head over heels AND mutually in love with [[spoiler:Shares, the Tsarevich of Rintar, but she takes absolutely no steps towards pacifying their countries' conflict - she believes that her mother and other politicians can sort it out perfectly.]]

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Practically everyone notices the chemistry going on between Alk and Ryska, at least by the beginning of the second book. While Alk is constantly taunting Ryska, and Ryska thinks she hates him.

* SlapSlapKiss: Ryska's relationship with Alk Haskil. Though they technically don't kiss during the novel. Yet.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Practically everyone notices the chemistry going on between Alk and Ryska, at least by the beginning of the second book.

* AwwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Practically everyone notices the chemistry going on between Alk and Ryska, at least by the beginning of the second book.

Marmot arranges a marriage between Ryska and his own lazy, infantile son, and the infuriated Ryska runs away. She goes to town in hopes of meeting Zhar, but on her way finds a mysterious talking rat, extremely hateful and sarcastic – who is not what he seems.

Marmot arranges a marriage between Ryska and his own lazy, infantile son, and the infuriated Ryska runs away. She goes to town in hopes of meeting Zhar, but on her way finds a mysterious talking rat, extremely hateful and sarcastic – who is not what he seems.

'''The Year of the Rat''' (2008-2009) is a two-book Russian fantasy novel by Olga Gromyko. It is set in an alternative universe in two countries, Rintar sand Savria, former allies, now always at odds. The main character is a Rintarian village girl Ryska (meaning "little lynx"), naïve, simple-minded, nine years old at the beginning. She is deeply unhappy at home, because she is the daughter of a Savrian soldier who raped Ryska's mother during the last Savro-Rintarian war. Everyone in the village despises the girl, save perhaps for a weak-willed boy who pities Ryska but doesn't stop his friends from taunting her, and the village priest (Savria and Rintar have the same religion, that being a cult of the good goddess Holga and her mischievous husband Sashiy).

Index/RussianLiterature

Ryska's life begins to change when she encounters a half-crazed old man, a former Wanderer (practicing magician in this world). After the meeting, a strange gift awakens in the girl – she begins to foresee and sometimes change the future.

Ryska's life begins to change when she encounters a half-crazed old man, a former Wanderer (practicing magician in this world).