Reginochka “Regina” Mandel

Regina is the wife of Bob and the eventual mother of Nastya, a Russian girl whom she and Bob adopt. Regina is one of the four Russian immigrants from whose point of view this novel is told.

In Russia, Regina was well known for her position as a writer who translated books from English into Russian. She dedicated her life to her work after Vica stole Sergey from her. Regina lived with her mother, who also worked as a translator. It was only while she was away from Russia on writing retreats that she ever attracted any men. One of these affairs resulted in a pregnancy. Although Regina’s mother encouraged her to keep the baby, Regina decided to have an abortion. The procedure went badly and Regina was unable to have any more children because of it.

Regina met Bob when she was in America...