The latest addition to my website is Olena Stiazhkina‘s Смерть Лева Сесіла (Cecil the Lion Had to Die). In 1986 a group of Ukrainians of German origin in Donetsk decide to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ernst Thälmann by naming a new-born child after him. Two babies are selected, to be called … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Oksana Lutsyshyna‘s Іван і Феба (Ivan and Phoebe). This novel primarily tells the story of Ivan but, to a lesser degree, of Phoebe, who will become Ivan’s wife during the course of the book. We follow Ivan from the early days of the break-up of the Soviet Union … Read more
Having just read twenty Ukrainian novels in a row does not really entitle me to make any major judgements about the country or its literature. Nevertheless I shall make a few remarks on my reading. Ukraine has been in the unfortunate position of having been occupied, in whole or part, by numerous nationalities, particularly the … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Eugenia Kononenko‘s Російський сюжет (A Russian Story). This is the last in my Ukrainian marathon and, despite the title, certainly one that deals best with the issue of Ukrainianness (the word is used in the book). We follow the story of Eugene (Zhenia) Samarsky. He is named Eugene … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Alexei Nikitin‘s Истеми (Y.T). In 1984 five students play a war game which involve inventing countries and transposing real historical characters to other eras and places. It is seemingly harmless but the KGB somehow finds out and they are arrested. They are held for two months but are … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Marjana Gaponenko‘s Wer ist Martha? (Who is Martha?). Our hero is Luka Levadski. He is a ninety-six year old Ukrainian ornithologist. He has just been told he has only a short time to live so he cashes in his savings and heads off to the luxurious Imperial Hotel … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Maria Matios‘s Солодка Даруся (Sweet Darusya). The novel is set among the Hutsul people in the Carpathians and is told in reverse chronological order, starting in the 1960s . Sweet Daryusa is so called because the locals consider her foolish and because she is mute. \We learn that … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Taras Prokhasko‘s НепрОсті (The Unsimple). This is a post-modern, magic realism novel set in the Carpathians. It is set primarily in the fairly remote, fictitious town of Ialivets. The town had been created by Franzysk, usually known as Franz, in 1888. He had had married Anna and they … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Zinaida Tulub‘s В степу безкраїм за Уралом (The Exile). This is novelised biography of the first exile of Ukraine’s national poet Taras Shevchenko. Shevchenko had written a poem which was fairly flattering about the Tsar but far less so about his wife. The Tsar was furious and Shevchenko … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yuri Andrukhovych‘s Московіада (The Moscoviad. Our hero is a Ukrainian poet called Otto Wilhelmovych von F. He has a two-year stipend to write poetry in Moscow, where he is housed with writers from all over the Soviet Union (though,as the year is 1991, the Soviet Union has not … Read more