Our Book Review of They Lived They Were

He’s losing his girlfriend Stacy it seems, and she’s all Ilya Nikolaevich wants, all he thinks he needs. So if everything else could disappear; the noise, the distractions, the crap in his life including that cough, the fog in his head. But it will not go, not until he takes his equipment to the coast, a spot on the wooden boardwalk, between Brighton Beach and Coney Island.

But was she coming? This blues guitarist and his all-day flame? She was not.

“This Sunday at the beach, at Ilya’s hit and run set, there was magic. Even the wind swung to his music and lured people in.”

His music produces crowds, a growing following for the protagonist, but it’s a lonely, empty photograph author Ivan Brave takes of Ilya’s life. And the writing is intriguing, not so much One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, but with a slightly stilted thrust and the occasional odd metaphor. It’s something I like.

In all, this is a story of heartache and surrender, to music, to love, and to drugs, wrapped in a DJ’s desperate attempt to make his life meaningful and not just tragic. And, to launch a debut EP of his own. Again, it’s something I like.

His character is fleshed-out, his flaws, and his strengths, the author slowly giving us a glimpse at his past and his desired future. Other characters join the fray; a has-been DJ at the club he works for in Brooklyn; a celebrated news anchor – twice his age – but Russian and a real-life guardian angel; and his real first love, Coke, which brings him once again to his knees.

They Lived is available at Amazon as Kindle and paperback. It’s a hefty 325 pages, which I believe you will find enlightening, encouraging, and an overall good read you are happy to have taken the chance on!