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“He’s a brilliant writer, a poet, novelist, and the lead singer of the ska band Sobaky v Kosmosi (Dogs in Outer Space.) He is the bard of eastern Ukraine. It’s a novel composed of different stories, mostly prose with some poetry as well. The stories are set in Kharkiv, a city in eastern Ukraine where Zhadan, who is himself from the Donbas, now lives. It was unclear in spring of 2014 whether there was going to be a separatist rebellion in Kharkiv, whether it was also going to become part of the territory ensconced in war. Serhiy Zhadan is really a genius at drawing the reader into the inner lives of these characters in post-industrial, post-Soviet places. His literary influences are ones that American readers will understand: the Beat poets, Kerouac and Burroughs, magical realism. Despite the fact that he’s writing about people in a radically different time and place, it’s somehow very easily relatable. He has an uncanny ear for dialogue. And he evokes a deep love utterly devoid of sentimentality for these people about whom we have long known nothing.” Read more...
