Lavochkina's parents weren't particularly religious either, but traditional dishes were served on holidays such as Passover and the Jewish New Year.

[5][6][7] She wrote short stories and poems that were published in British and American anthologies and literary magazines.

[8] She submitted the unpublished manuscript to a literary competition run by the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company and won second prize in 2013.

The title comes from the English spelling of Zaporizhia, a sleepy town on the Dnieper at the beginning of the twentieth century, where the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin is said to have lost a valuable ring while bathing in the river.

FAZ reviewer Christiane Pöhlmann wrote that Lavochkina traces the mood of the Brezhnev era, which was characterized by dreariness and bourgeoisie, and pulls it "through the cocoa".

Lavochkina captures anti-Semitism, contempt for women, the great silence about the Stalin era and the degradation of the provinces in a "colorful picture".