The Kukotsky Enigma won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize.

In 2005, a television series based on the novel by director Yuri Grymov was aired in Russia.

Critics suggest that the book's focus on abortion (from 1936 to 1955 it was allowed in the USSR only for medical reasons) offers a new reading of Stalinism through the lens of family life and the female body.

The first describes the life of the Kukotsky family members before the 1960s: his wife Yelena, their adopted daughter Tanya, a classmate Toma, and a former nun working as a housekeeper in Yelena’s home.

The second part is a dream Yelena experiences while hovering between life and death.