Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip

De: Irena Smith

Narrado por: Irena Smith

In this lyrical and unconventional memoir, a road trip to California's Central Coast becomes an epic journey through family history, loss, and connection.

When three generations of women—a middle-aged narrator, her seventy-seven-year-old mother, and her twenty-two-year-old Gen Z daughter—set out for a quick trip to California's Central Coast, their road trip transforms into something far richer: a modern-day Odyssey. Over the course of three days, they brave a severe winter storm, encounter terrifying ostriches, walk through an enchanted light exhibit, binge-watch White Lotus, hunt for coffee with plant-based milk, bicker, reconcile, and share stories.

Troika braids the story of a three-day road trip with the longer strands of migration, memory, and motherhood, creating a layered meditation on distance traveled—geographic, generational, and emotional. It’s a kaleidoscopic journey that traverses the landscapes of identity and family history and stretches from the horrors of the second world war and an escape from Soviet Russia to adolescence and motherhood in the suburbs of Silicon Valley. As the narrative swerves from heartbreak to hilarity, from Homeric detours and Russian proverbs to internet memes, the strands weave together an intimate, poignant, and darkly funny meditation on how we get from where we were to where we are—and what we carry with us along the way.

©2026 Irena Smith (P)2026 Irena Smith