Trafika Europe 7 - Ukrainian Prayer

Editor’s Welcome

Here is some more detail about each of these authors and works:

1 We’re pleased to begin our Ukrainian focus with a long excerpt from Voroshilovgrad , which has earned high praise as the winner of BBC Ukraine’s Book of the Decade award. Countercultural poet, prose writer, and essayist Serhiy Zhadan (Сергій Жадан, born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast, 1974) is the most prolific author from Eastern Ukraine today and is best-known for his novel, Depeche Mode as well as collections of short stories such as Big Mac (2003, 2011, 2015) and Mesopotamia (2015). In Voroshilovgrad, linear plot plays a secondary role, presenting a picture of dysfunctional post-Soviet space in an industrial wasteland of Eastern Ukraine, populated by criminal elements and on-the- make operators. This novel in English translation is forthcoming in April, 2016 from Deep Vellum Publishing.

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