The Lost Button

Called "The Lady Detective of Ukrainian literature" by the media for her splendid earlier detective books, Irene Rozdobudko burst onto the literary scene with a dozen award winning titles ranging from a light absurd comedy to a heavy psychological thriller. She quickly claimed a place among the masters of modern literature in her native Ukraine.A journalism graduate of Kyiv National University, the author somewhat incongruously began her career as a waitress, later taking occasional jobs in a circus and a video store. Her talent for the written word eventually came to fruition when she found work as a journalist in Kyiv, but her career took an interesting turn when she began working on national radio and as an editor of two popular magazines, before turning to novel writing.Rozdobudko has a lively, engaging writing style that makes her works accessible to a wide reading audience: she skilfully pinpoints those aspects of human nature that drive decisions and give direction to a person's life. Her cinematographic vision and psychologically complicated, delicately crafted characters make her novels perfect for big screen adaptation (The Lost Button was recently made into a film) as well as for the bookshelf of a devotee of quality modern literature. Rozdubudko's artistic brilliance has won her the national prize in literature "Coronation of the Word" three times.