"Manyunya, Ba’s Anniversary, and Other Troubles" by Narine Abgaryan, summary

Narine Abgaryan’s autobiographical novella was written in 2012. This book is the finale of a trilogy about two young girls growing up in the provincial Armenian town of Berd in the early 1980s. The text is structured as a succession of funny and touching episodes, imbued with the flavor of Soviet life, Caucasian traditions, and family warmth.

This book concludes the series following "Manyunya" and "Manyunya Writes a Fantasy Novel." The entire series received widespread acclaim and inspired a popular television series and feature-length film adaptations.

Beard pranks and a final concert at the music school

Mornings at the Shats house begin with Manina discussing Charles Darwin’s theory. Trying to look like a true Master of Science and Royal Navy captain, the girl draws on her cheeks with a black marker. Grandmother Roza Iosifovna (Ba) suffers a bout of sciatica from surprise and laughter. Uncle Misha sends his bearded daughter to the neighbors for tiger ointment, and Narine’s father, who arrives, gives Ba a life-saving injection. The stubborn pigment is washed off with cucumber lotion.

A demonstration concert is planned at the music school. Her friends are desperately jealous of Angelina, an excellent student who has shown the first signs of a feminine figure. During an argument with her sister, Karinka, Narine sticks her head between the bars of the balcony railing and gets stuck. In front of a crowd gathered outside, her mother, Nadya, pours sunflower oil on the girl’s head and rescues her from the trap. At the concert, Narine, with her ears scratched, plays a piano etude wearing a silk scarf, Manyunya plays the violin, and her childhood fear of heights vanishes forever.

Crafts, anniversary preparations, and a bath day

In the spring, the girls try to make a fan from the neighbor’s rooster’s feathers. An attempt to stun the bird with a cabbage lid results in Grandma’s wrath. Grandma helps her granddaughters secure the feathers in a wine cork, but the fan quickly falls apart. Household chores are interspersed with caring for their capricious younger sister, Sonya, who bosses the adults around in a deep voice and has trouble falling asleep.

Ba’s sixtieth birthday is approaching. The family is expecting relatives from Kirovabad and Novorossiysk. A gas pipeline accident leaves the entire district without heat, jeopardizing the baking of the birthday cakes. Dad Yura borrows a gas cylinder from nurse Kira, and cooking resumes. Before the guests arrive, Ba takes her granddaughters to the communal bathhouse, where the girls meet the school history teacher and a local eccentric named Tamar, whose earlobes have been torn. A city car with a megaphone announces that the gas will soon be turned back on.

Celebration of Ba’s anniversary and May Day demonstration

Ba’s birthday is marked by a morning thunderstorm. Manyunya hides under the sofa in the living room next to a sleeping Uncle Motya, bawling out the Soviet anthem in fear. The birthday girl is presented with homemade brooches, poems, paintings, and a pearl set. Uncle Misha brings home from the train station his smoking cousin Faya, who has shocked the locals with her behavior. A feast of homemade delicacies takes place in a warm atmosphere.

The third secretary of the district party committee, Comrade Minasyan, undertakes to organize a grand May Day demonstration. A GAZ-51 truck carrying a living sculpture of a Worker and Kolkhoz Woman, painted white, is placed at the head of the column. The truck moves in reverse, a choir sings folk songs, and a funeral orchestra plays Chopin’s funeral march in a major key. At a traffic light, the truck accelerates sharply, and the statue falls on the organizer, but the procession concludes triumphantly in the central square.

A swallow feeder and a visit from a Moscow guest

Swallows are building a nest under the ceiling of the Abgaryans’ balcony. Yura, their father, tries to count the chicks, falls off his stool, and knocks the frame out of place. The girls are making a bird feeder out of a mop and a metal tray, but the heavy structure falls and lands next to their picky neighbor, Sirun. Their mother hides the children in the bathroom and saves them from the neighbor’s wrath by forcing them to eat onion soup.

In the summer, a seven-year-old relative, Nastya, comes from the capital. Karinka makes herself a bulletproof vest out of a knitted vest, pot lids, and a tray, while Narine and Manyunya make pom-poms for knee-high socks. The girls head to the ruins of an old fortress and sing Vladimir Vysotsky’s "Rock Climber," shouting over the echoing noise and the pets. Uncle Misha scolds the group for the noise, and the dental technician, Maxim Ivanovich, forges damask steel shoulder straps for Karinka’s vest.

A gift for a nurse and romantic adventures

The dental department is preparing to celebrate Kira, the nurse’s twenty-fifth anniversary. Karinka vows to lead a good life, but the arrival of her neighbor, Rubik, with a car tire provokes a fight at the pharmacy construction site. The girls defeat the boys but return home covered in dirt. Her parents, along with Ba, buy Kira an expensive chocolate-colored leather bag.

Ba discovers that her son has been taking Manyunya to visit his girlfriend, Sofya, without her knowledge. While playing in the attic, Karinka accidentally hits Ba in the head with a slingshot and hides in a wooden chest among old notebooks. Uncle Misha decides to take Sofya on a romantic walk in the mountains, but the GAZ-69 all-terrain vehicle falls into a swamp. Her smart companion, while helping push the one-and-a-half-ton vehicle, suffers back pain and insect bites.

Family Trips and Rooftop Adventures

The family regularly goes on mountain picnics with shashlik, herbs, and baked vegetables. The forests are home to numerous wild animals, and the local poet, Uncle Volodya, searches for truffles with the help of a pet boar. The relatives travel to the village of Paravakar to visit Manyuni’s mother’s parents. Grandfather Ambo demonstrates unstinting hospitality, slaughtering rams for any passerby and proving the Armenian origins of world celebrities.

The girls climb onto the slate roof of the garages and watch through the open window as the Ovnanyans search for a dead rat in their neighbors’ apartment. Biruta, the owner, accidentally gets her fingers caught in a forgotten rat trap and screams hysterically. Panicked, Narine breaks a slate slab, slides down a rusty drainpipe, and stains her new trousers, which, after being repainted at home, end up in her younger sister’s possession.

A trip to Kirovabad and the New Year’s holiday

In late autumn, the adults organize a trip to Kirovabad. The all-terrain vehicle breaks down, so some of the family travels in a car, while Uncle Misha and the girls take transit buses. On the way, Karinka loosens the bolts on the seat, and Uncle Misha argues with the old people. In Kirovabad, the travelers visit relatives, explore the city, ride the tram, and visit an Armenian church.

In December, the town is blanketed with heavy snow. Dad brings a large Ded Moroz (Father Frost) from Moscow, whom Sonya affectionately calls the Domovoi (Little Brownie). Thanks to this toy, the child finally breaks away from the rubber pacifier. Karinka composes humorous New Year’s quatrains for each family member. As the chimes ring, adults and children gather around a set table with hot tolma (a type of meat stew) and meat pies.

In the author’s epilogue, Narine Abgaryan shares details about the heroines’ adult lives. Narine and Manyunya received philological educations, Karinka, after working at the department, took up silk painting with Gayane, and the grown-up Sonya devoted herself to the visual arts. Their childhood years remain a source of inexhaustible spiritual support for them.