"Her Last Hero" by Maria Metlitskaya, summary Automatic translate

"Her Last Hero" is a dramatic novel by Maria Metlitskaya, written in 2013. This book tells the story of an unexpected and profound connection between an elderly, long-forgotten Soviet director and a young Moscow journalist. They meet by chance while preparing a routine interview, but this fleeting work encounter turns their lives upside down, revealing deep emotional wounds, the burden of past mistakes, and the tragic fates of people from a bygone era.

The novel is part of the renowned book series "Behind Other People’s Windows. Prose by M. Metlitskaya," which brings together heartfelt stories about love, loss, and the search for happiness. This series also includes such popular works as "Life Was Quite Good" and "The Faithful Husband."

Clash of two generations

Ilya Maksimovich Gorodetsky was a once-famous director and screenwriter who shone in the 1970s. By 2013, he had become a lonely, grumpy retiree, living out his days in a modest apartment in Staroye Ochakovo. His days are filled with melancholy, insomnia, and memories. His ex-wife Zhenya calls him regularly out of a sense of duty, but Ilya irritably rejects her care, trying to completely isolate himself from the outside world.

Anna Levkova is a twenty-eight-year-old Moscow journalist. She’s been in a dull, insipid relationship with a young man named Silny for two years, causing only mild irritation. Anna’s personal life seems a dead end, and her family has long been at odds: her domineering and ambitious mother, Svetlana Sergeyevna, left her for a wealthy businessman, leaving behind her father, a quiet, confused pensioner. Anna sincerely pities him and regularly visits him at his dilapidated dacha.

Magazine editor Viktor Popov tasks Anna with preparing a series of reports on forgotten icons of Soviet cinema. Gorodetsky is on the list of potential subjects. During their first phone call, the former director rudely interrupts Anna and hangs up. He’s used to harshly dismissing intrusive reporters looking to boost ratings with old gossip.

Attempts at rapprochement

Anna decides not to give in. To win Gorodetsky’s sympathy, she calls him again and fabricates a story. She lies that she’s from the provinces, paying a mortgage on a room, supporting a sick child and an elderly mother, and that if she fails to get the interview, she’ll certainly be fired. Ilya Maksimovich gives in and agrees to meet in the courtyard of his building.

They meet on the street, but Gorodetsky refuses to take his guest into his untidy home. They head to the nearby café, "Tulip." There, over a sizzling pan of scrambled eggs with tomatoes served by the waitress, Nina, their first conversation begins. Quickly seeing through Anna’s lie, Ilya accuses her of a simple lie: she doesn’t have the haunted look typical of newcomers with debts. He angrily leaves, but Anna leaves a five-hundred-ruble note on the table, hurt by his abruptness.

Soon, Anna’s father suffers a heart attack. She rushes to the dacha and takes him to the local rural hospital. The conditions there are meager, and the attending physician, Vera Matveyevna, orders strict rest. Anna buys groceries, linens, and medicine, remaining completely alone at the dacha. At that moment, Ilya Maksimovich calls, alarmed by her disappearance. Upon learning of the emergency, he unexpectedly decides to help.

Two weeks of happiness

Gorodetsky comes to visit Anna at her dacha. The elderly man actively participates in her care: he buys groceries at the market, helps her with her daily routine, and communicates with the doctors at the hospital. Despite the vast age difference, a mutual attraction blossoms between Anna and Ilya. During a thunderstorm, they become closer. The two weeks spent at the dacha and in the hospital courtyard fly by like a wonderful dream.

Returning to Moscow, the lovers continue to meet secretly. Ilya cleans his apartment with the help of his janitor, Nadya. Anna spends almost every night with him, feeling truly happy. However, Gorodetsky begins to suffer from severe insecurities. He fears his own old age, poverty, and imminent separation, realizing that the young woman needs a family and children.

In a fit of rage and fear, Ilya insults Anna, calling her a cynical careerist who only wants dirty facts for an article. He kicks her out, hoping to break off the relationship before she dumps him first. Anna leaves, choking on tears. Ilya decides to temporarily escape Moscow. He takes a taxi from a driver nicknamed Lenin and goes to the remote village of Listvyanka, where he stays with the strict peasants Natalya Ivanovna and Viktor.

Village Shelter and Return

In Listvyanka, Gorodetsky helps his family harvest carrots and heat the sauna. There, he encounters a different reality. Viktor harshly judges his daughter Lena, who left for St. Petersburg and is living with a rich, older man for money. Ilya objects, suggesting it might be love, but he encounters peasant intransigence. Natalya Ivanovna, the landlady, questions him about his children, and Gorodetsky confesses that his only son, Artur, has become a drug addict and a scumbag.

Realizing he can’t escape his own conscience, Ilya returns to Moscow. His neighbor, the drunk Stepanych, tells him that a tearful Anna came knocking on his door. Anna is going through a profound crisis at this point, but decides to pull herself together. Changes are taking place at the magazine’s editorial office: the new owner fires Popov and cuts staff, so interviews are no longer required.

Ilya calls Anna, they make up, and decide to go to the seaside. To raise money for the trip, Gorodetsky takes a humiliating step: he asks his ex-wife Zhenya for a loan, lying about needing treatment at a sanatorium. Zhenya gives him her Sberbank savings.

Confession in Turkey

They fly to Turkey for nine days. On the warm coast, Anna begins recording the conversation, and Ilya begins to open up about his past. His confession is full of difficult secrets. He recalls his mother, who suffered from constant fear after his father’s arrest, and his aunt Lyusya, who hanged herself in the hallway. Gorodetsky admits that he felt only relief, freed from the burden of their misfortunes.

His first wife, the beautiful Liliana, dreamed of fame and Cannes, but her career didn’t work out. She began drinking. Ilya admits that her depression irritated him, and he ran away on expeditions. Ultimately, Liliana jumped out of a window while he was home. To assuage his guilty conscience, Ilya went to work in Tashkent, escaping accusations from his ex-mother-in-law that he had driven her to suicide.

His second wife, Irma, bore him a son, Artur, but died tragically in a car accident. Ilya gave the five-year-old boy to his deceased wife’s sister, Elga, to raise. The son grew up a drug addict. Gorodetsky tried to treat him in clinics and sent him to a work community with a former drug addict, Tolik, but ultimately cut Artur out of his life completely, refusing to share their apartment.

Ilya also recalls other women. The Czech actress Magda was madly in love with him, leaving her husband and daughter for him, but he fled her suffocating passion. The young artist Stasya became pregnant by him, but Ilya, afraid of the responsibility, forced her to have an abortion. Stasya later married his friend Alexander Tkachenko, who raised the girl as his own. He and Tkachenko parted as enemies after the failure of their film together.

Betrayal also affected friendship. Director Komarov begged Ilya to give him a promising script to earn money for his sick daughter’s treatment, but Ilya took the job for his own triumph. Another close friend, the surgeon Khodasevich, was imprisoned for bribery, drank himself to death along with his wife after his release, and both died in a drunken brawl.

Tragic ending

After returning to Moscow, Ilya feels devastated. He rages at Anna, accusing her of forcing his soul on him for the sake of an article. They part at the airport. At home, Gorodetsky puts away his phone and unplugs the landline. That night, he suffers a fatal heart attack. He manages to dial his ex-wife Zhenya, asking her to meet Anna so she won’t be scared. Ilya dies in the ambulance.

Returning, Anna finds Zhenya in the apartment and learns of her beloved’s death. To cope with her grief, she decides to write a book about him. She meets people from his past but is confronted with a harsh reality.

Alexander Tkachenko and Stasya remember Ilya with hatred. Stasya claims he destroyed all his women and abandoned his children. His son, Artur, living in poverty on the outskirts, calls his father a scumbag and is only happy about the prospect of inheriting an apartment. In the Czech Republic, Magda’s husband reports that his wife has gone mad and is in a psychiatric hospital, and that he himself has always wished for Gorodetsky a painful death. Komarov, a former friend who has become a successful provincial director, confirms that he considers Ilya a traitor.

Only his ex-wife Zhenya and her son Slavik remember him with gratitude for his help with the complex operation. Realizing that the book would uncover too much old dirt, Anna throws away the SIM card and abandons the plan. She wants to keep the image of her only hero in her heart.

Soon, Anna begins to feel constantly nauseous and weak. She consults a doctor and learns she is three months pregnant. Ilya Gorodetsky’s child brings back the meaning she’s lost in her life.