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.”
Alexandra Kryuchkova was deservedly awarded the diploma as “the initiator and participant of the ‘Russia-Greece. The 21st 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.”
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 21st 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 21st 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