In early 80's Ukraine is stricken by perestroika and struggles for "democracy", Afghanistan is in flames of a war where hundreds of eighteen-year-old youths are killed every day. Their peer, Dan, a student of cinematography, hardly cares about social problems anywhere on the planet. But one fatal encounter with a mysterious young lady in a picturesque corner of the Carpathians changes his life forever. Unable to let go of his love after getting lost with her in the woods for one beautiful night, the young man's fascination with the actress turns into an obsession. He deliberately goes through all the hell circles in Afghanistan, striving to burn out the traces of his unrequited love. Years later his native country just starts experiencing a real advertising boom amidst which he finds a new way to apply his creative talent and inner strengths. However, the past of his love rushes back into his life and now this obsession takes him from one continent to another.
The taut psychological thriller The Lost Button keeps the reader transfixed. The novel encompasses an entire era from the mid-70s of the previous century till the modern day with its geography stretching over the European region including Kiev, the Ukraine's periphery, Russia and Montenegro, and at last the United States. It explores evergreen concepts of love, devotion, and betrayal and emphasizes the idea that whenever and wherever one lives, a tiny detail like a lost button has the power to set off a chain of events that would lead to either one's greatest happiness or one's greatest tragedy. It is about not looking back, but always valuing what you have - today and forever.
The Lost Button received first place in the "Coronation of the Word" competition in 2005 and subsequently was made into a feature film.
Called "The Lady Detective of Ukrainian literature" by the media for her splendid earlier detective books, Irene Rozdobudko burst onto the literary scene with a dozen award winning titles ranging from a light absurd comedy to a heavy psychological thriller. She quickly claimed a place among the masters of modern literature in her native Ukraine.A journalism graduate of Kyiv National University, the author somewhat incongruously began her career as a waitress, later taking occasional jobs in a circus and a video store. Her talent for the written word eventually came to fruition when she found work as a journalist in Kyiv, but her career took an interesting turn when she began working on national radio and as an editor of two popular magazines, before turning to novel writing.Rozdobudko has a lively, engaging writing style that makes her works accessible to a wide reading audience: she skilfully pinpoints those aspects of human nature that drive decisions and give direction to a person's life. Her cinematographic vision and psychologically complicated, delicately crafted characters make her novels perfect for big screen adaptation (The Lost Button was recently made into a film) as well as for the bookshelf of a devotee of quality modern literature. Rozdubudko's artistic brilliance has won her the national prize in literature "Coronation of the Word" three times.
