A review by jessrock
The Woman Who Waited by Andreï Makine

3.0

The Woman Who Waited takes place in a remote Russian village that has been all but abandoned in the years following WWII. With all the men having gone off to war and the younger people having long ago fled for better lives, the town is made up almost exclusively of elderly women - and one younger one who has stayed to look after them. The tale is that her sweetheart swore he would come back for her, and that she's still waiting for him to come back - thirty years later. A young man half her age comes to this remote village to do research for a book he's writing, but finds himself fascinated by this woman and keeps extending his stay to try to learn more about her, falling in love with her in the process. He eventually discovers that there is more to her than the myth that has been built up around her, which only deepens his fascination, as he tries to understand her true reasons for staying behind in a village everyone else has abandoned.