A summary of "The Transformer Woman" by Elena Nesterina Automatic translate

Written in 2007, this novel is a fantastical story about a thirty-four-year-old Muscovite who overcomes a protracted crisis by acquiring the ability to fly. Told in the first person, it blends the everyday realities of the metropolis with folkloric motifs. This book is part of the "Shock Novel: Novels by E. Nesterina" series, and is the first in the series. Another well-known work in this series is "Dynamo Machine."

Escape from the metropolis and find wings

The novel’s heroine works as a brand manager in a Moscow office. She’s thirty-four years old. She has no husband, children, or home of her own. She feels deprived of ordinary female happiness. On the last day of summer, she goes to her friend Zhenya’s country house to celebrate her husband’s birthday.

A cheerful group gathers there, including her friends Larisa and Angela. Zhenya tries to matchmake the heroine with a clumsy, overweight man. Trying to escape his persistent advances, the woman runs to the top floor of the building, where she’s been assigned a room. Her friends rush after her.

A woman runs out onto the balcony and jumps onto a staircase under repair, covered with slippery plastic. Her foot slips, and she falls five feet onto the stone slabs. Something incredible happens. Instead of crashing, she soars into the evening sky.

She discovers powerful wings with beautiful plumage. Her head, face, and chest remain human, but from the waist down, she transforms into a huge bird. The heroine soars above forests and roads, experiencing absolute ecstasy. She races the speed of a commuter train and rejoices in her newfound freedom.

Wounded flight and rescue in Klyuchi

The flight is marred by contact lenses that slip beneath her eyelids. The heroine lands near a forest well, replaces the lenses, and examines her reflection in the water. She realizes she resembles the fairytale Alkonost.

She tries to return to her friend’s house but encounters hunters in a jeep. The men mistake her for a large, rare bird like a condor and start shooting. One bullet wounds her in the right wing and thigh. Exhausted, the wounded creature collapses near a cow farm.

When the bird falls, it transforms back into a naked woman. She is found by seventeen-year-old local herdsman Gleb. Gleb has a speech impediment, but he displays a noble spirit. He covers the injured woman, carries her to a small room, and treats her wounds. Local veterinarian Uncle Kolya, using local anesthesia, stitches up her injured leg.

The heroine spends about a week on the farm. Gleb takes care of her, cooks her food, and administers her injections. He speaks with a strange speech impediment, but displays a rare sensitivity. The woman becomes attached to him, and with him, she forgets her insecurities about the capital.

A few days later, Gleb and the veterinarian take her in a Niva to a highway with cell phone service. The woman calls her mother and friends. She concocts a beautiful lie about a passionate affair with a wealthy man named Romuald to conceal her true whereabouts.

Returning to the farm, the heroine decides to show Gleb her transformation. She leaps from the fence and turns into a bird. However, her naked appearance is noticed by the milkmaids, who laugh at Gleb. The young man’s mother, Ninka, also causes a scandal over her adult bride.

The woman decides to leave. Gleb gives her money for a ticket and escorts her to the bus in a cart. They warmly embrace goodbye.

Nightlife in Moscow

Returning to Moscow, the heroine collects her belongings from the police, where her friends filed a missing persons report. She confirms the story about Romuald to Zhenya and Angela. She is warmly received at work. Her product promotion projects have proven commercially successful, and management values her creativity.

She lives in a rented apartment, but the old melancholy is fading. She’s learning to control her transformations. She practices flying with glasses, securing them to her face with chewing gum. At night, she flies out of the eighth-floor balcony and soars over the Moscow River, the Garden Ring, and the spires of Stalin’s skyscrapers.

Her boring old boyfriend, Anton, is looking for her. They meet at a restaurant, but she realizes she no longer wants to marry for reasons of prestige. An attempt to get closer to her online acquaintance, Stas, also fails. After intimacy, she realizes that without love, these encounters are empty and bring no joy.

Investigation and meeting with a journalist

On the eve of November 4th, Gleb’s birthday, the heroine decides to visit the young man. With Angela’s help, she buys him an expensive Canadian jacket.

In Klyuchi, she is warmly welcomed by Gleb and his family. At night, she flies over the village. In the local newspaper, Voskhod, she finds an article about the "Ghost of Bird Flu." Residents often saw a huge silhouette in the sky, and journalist Galaktion Poluektov collected a whole collection of photographs and negatives.

To protect herself, the heroine forges a fake state ornithologist’s ID and visits the editorial office. She manages to retrieve all the photos and files from Poluektov. She convinces him that the giant bird is an optical illusion caused by a damp atmospheric lens.

She meets a young journalist who wrote a lyrical tale about the Sirin bird. Trusting the girl, the heroine leads her into the editorial office’s empty, cold assembly hall and transforms into a bird maiden. The stunned journalist promises to keep this secret.

The final choice and the abduction

The heroine returns to the capital, but thoughts of Gleb never leave her. She realizes she truly loves this young man. In the winter, flying in the freezing cold becomes difficult. Visiting Gleb again, she learns to ride a horse and helps him overcome his speech impediment.

At a bus stop on the way to Moscow, a passenger roughly pushes the heroine. Gleb intervenes and forces the offender to apologize. This act evokes admiration in her. On the bus, she makes her final decision: to quit her job and move permanently to the village to be with Gleb.

Her boss, surprised, calls her in for a talk, and she declares, "I’m leaving. I’ve fallen in love. It’s mutual. I’m leaving. Happiness exists." She pays off her debts, collects her paycheck from work, and leaves her summer clothes with her friend Larisa. At dawn, she leaves her rented apartment and takes a taxi to Klyuchi.

They begin living together in a tiny room on a farm. Life is devoid of amenities, but the heroine feels absolutely happy.

In the spring, Gleb leaves for a week in Rostov for an equestrian competition. Left alone, the heroine decides to take a flight while listening to music from her iPod. She loses her guard and gets lost. As she’s landing, a tarp is thrown over her and several men grab her.

She ends up captured by the very same hunters who shot her in the fall. They keep her chained in the dark basement of their new home, trying to negotiate the sale of the rare creature to a circus or a wealthy buyer. The men photograph her and handcuff her paws.

She tries unsuccessfully to escape. Her captivity lasts about a week. Gleb returns and begins searching for her. She cunningly lulls the guards’ attention by feigning weakness and illness. While walking in the courtyard, she jumps onto the roof of a shed, transforms into a woman, frees herself from the handcuffs, and escapes.

On the way, she’s spotted by the kidnappers’ wives, who have arrived with a scandal. The women mistake her for their husbands’ mistress and beat her. The heroine manages to escape and run to the forest. On the night highway, she flags down a passing car, and is later picked up by a UAZ ambulance and taken to a shelter.

New life in Lyudotyn

She develops double pneumonia. From the shelter, she calls Gleb from someone else’s phone. He finds her, picks her up, and takes her to the hospital. They sell his old car and buy a Niva. She recovers quickly. They decide to move even further into the wilderness, choosing the abandoned village of Lyudotino.

They set up an old wooden house on the edge of a cliff by the river. Here, the heroine can fly completely freely. At the beginning of summer, Gleb is drafted into the army. Before leaving, he gathers the few residents of Lyudotin and shows them the heroine in the guise of a bird maiden.

Gleb asks the locals to support her before she leaves for the army: "She’s a miracle! Let her fly. Don’t tell anyone!" The elderly people welcome her warmly and promise to keep her secret. She decides to get a job at the post office, delivering pensions and letters to the surrounding villages on her wings.

Before leaving, Gleb confesses his love to her: "I love you. Truly. I love you like… like anything." She reciprocates. The heroine sees Gleb off as he heads off to work. She returns to the village and waits for his return, having found inner freedom, true peace, and long-awaited happiness.