tmn The latest addition to my website is Serhiy Zhadan‘s Інтернат (The Orphanage).It is set in the Ukraine-Russia border area, after the illegal Russian takeover of Crimea but before the illegal invasion. However, there is considerable turmoil as the Russians are aiding the separatists to move into Ukraine. Pasha is a teacher whose nephew, Sasha, (father … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko‘s Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra). This is a decidedly strange book as we follow the story of Sasha, a sixteen year old. While on holiday with her mother, she is persuaded by a strange man to perform seemingly pointless tasks. Later she is persuaded by … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yuriy Vynnychuk‘s Танґо смерті (Tango of Death). This is a very complex novel, set mainly in Lviv. It is told in alternating chapters. The first set tells the story of four boys/men whose fathers were killedby the Russian force of Grigory Kotovsky, a professional bandit and vicious thug. … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Theodore Odrach‘s Вошадь (Wave of Terror). Odrach fled Ukraine and moved to Canada where he wrote this book, his only novel translated into English. it is set in his native Pinsk Marshes and the town of Pinsk. The book is set in 1939. The area had been under … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Valerian Pidmohylny‘s Місто (The City). This is an appropriate work to start off my Ukrainian reading marathon, in the light of current events, as Pidmohylny was murdered, along with about a thousand other Ukrainians, by the Russians. This book tells the story of Stepan, who comes from the … Read more
Every year at about this time I focus on books from just one country. Last year I had a country in mind and then we decided to go to Norway so I switched to Norway. Soon after starting the Norway read, Putin started his nasty illegal invasion of Ukraine so I had no doubt that … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Alla Gorbunova‘s Конец света, моя любовь It’s the End of the World, My Love). Gorbunova is primarily a poet and this is to a great extent a poet’s novel. We start with the unnamed female narrator telling various stories about life and her life in a post-Soviet small … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Boris Poplavsky‘s Домой с небес (Homeward from Heaven). This is a follow-up to his earlier Аполлон Безобразов (Apollon Bezobrazov) and, indeed, features the devilish character Apollon Bezobrazov, who appears to assist our hero, Oleg, when things are not going well. Oleg is a Russian exile living in Paris … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Bakhtiyar Ali‘s Henarî Dunya (The Last Pomegranate Tree In The World). This is another superb novel from Bakhtiyar Ali telling the story of Muzafar-i Subhdam who had been captured while fighting Saddam Hussein and kept imprisoned in a remote desert prison for 21 years, unaware that Saddam has … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Laurent Mauvignier‘s Histoires de la nuit (The Birthday Party). The book is set in a small French hamlet called Three Lone Girls. There are three houses: one empty, one inhabited by Christine, an elderly artist and the third inhabited by Patrice Bergogne, his wife, Marion and their daughter, … Read more