His ragged, sympathetic characters aren’t the newly rich post–Soviets of Moscow, the urban oligarchs Peter Pomerantsev has described, who “sing hymns to Russian religious conservatism - and keep their money and families in London.” They are individuals struggling to come to terms with their place in history and with the history of their place." - Amelia Glaser, Los Angeles Review of Books "With Voroshilovgrad, Zhadan has created an authentic poetics of post–Soviet rural devastation. readers will be touched by his devotion to a land of haunted beauty, 'high sky,' and 'black earth.'" - Publishers Weekly For Zhadan, loyalty and fraternity are the life-giving forces in this exhausted, fertile, near-anarchic corner of the country. "A homecoming is by turns magical and brutal in Zhadan's impressive picaresque novel. Zhadan’s language is suitably elastic, swinging from the tough, streetwise irony of a Ukrainian Irvine Welsh to flights of ebullient poetry more reminiscent of Bruno Schulz." - Uilleam Blacker, Times Literary Supplement There is something deeply mythological about the novel, and, like many myths, it is a story of homecoming. " Voroshilovgrad is more, however, than an exercise in post-Soviet social realism. Even in this brutish habitus, there is trust, loyalty, and love.” - Marci Shore, The New Yorker “ Voroshilovgrad is an unsentimental novel about human relationships in conditions of brutality in which there is not a single act of betrayal… In his prose there is no nostalgia, but there is genuine affection, rough and profound. One of World Literature Today 's Recommended Summer Reads 2016 Winner of the BBC Ukraine's Book of the Decade Award in December 2014 Winner of the 2014 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature Wheeler lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he is a professional business and literary translator. Isaac Wheeler received an MA in Russian Translation from Columbia University and is also a graduate of Haverford College, where he studied Russian Language and English Literature. He lives and works in Moscow and translates literature from the Ukrainian and Russian. Reilly Costigan-Humes is a graduate of Haverford College, where he studied Russian literature and culture. In 2013, he participated in Euromaidan demonstrations in Kharkiv, and in 2014, he was assaulted outside the administration building in Kharkiv, an incident discussed in The New Yorker. His own works have been translated into German, English, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Russian, Hungarian, Armenian, Swedish and Czech. Zhadan has translated poetry from German, English, Belarusian, and Russian from poets such as Paul Celan and Charles Bukowski. He taught Ukrainian and world literature from 2000 to 2004, and thereafter retired from teaching. He graduated from Kharkiv University in 1996, then spent three years as a graduate student of philology. Zhadan was born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast. Writing is just one of his many interests, which also include singing in a band, translating poetry and organizing literary festivals. He has twice won BBC Ukraine’s Book of the Year (20) and has twice been nominated as Russian GQ’s “Man of the Year” in their writers category. Serhiy Zhadan is one of the key voices in contemporary Ukrainian literature: his poetry and novels have enjoyed popularity both at home and abroad. The bleak industrial landscape of now-war-torn eastern Ukraine sets the stage for Voroshilovgrad, the Soviet era name of the Ukranian city of Luhansk, mixing magical realism and exhilarating road novel in poetic, powerful, and expressive prose. "Trainspotting set against a grim post-Soviet backdrop." - NewsweekĪ city-dwelling executive heads home to take over his brother's gas station after his mysterious disappearance, but all he finds at home are mysteries and ghosts. Translated from the Ukrainian by Isaac Wheeler and Reilly Costigan-HumesĮasy Rider meets Pedro Páramo in this darkly funny, fast-paced road novel that barrels through eastern Ukraine's ravaged industrial landscape.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |