Search results for ""Author Bela Shayevich""

Book SynopsisSecond-hand Time is the latest work from Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. Here she brings together the voices of dozens of witnesses to the collapse of the USSR in a formidable attempt to chart the disappearance of a culture and to surmise what new kind of man may emerge from the rubble. Fashioning a singular, polyphonic literary form by combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, Alexievich creates a magnificent requiem to a civilization in ruins, a brilliant, poignant and unique portrait of post-Soviet society out of the stories of ordinary women and men.Trade Review‘In this spellbinding book, Svetlana Alexievich orchestrates a rich symphony of Russian voices telling their stories of love and death, joy and sorrow, as they try to make sense of the twentieth century, so tragic for their country.’ — J. M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature‘Absolutely fantastic.’ — Karl Ove Knausgaard‘The non-fiction volume that has done the most to deepen the emotional understanding of Russia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union of late is Svetlana Alexievich’s oral history Second-hand Time.’ — David Remnick, New Yorker‘Second-Hand Time is [Alexievich’s] most ambitious work: many women and a few men talk about the loss of the Soviet idea, the post-Soviet ethnic wars, the legacy of the Gulag, and other aspects of the Soviet experience.... Through her books and her life itself, Alexievich has gained probably the world’s deepest, most eloquent understanding of the post-Soviet condition.’ — Masha Gessen, New Yorker‘A series of monologues by people across the former Soviet empire, it is Tolstoyan in scope, driven by the idea that history is made not only by major players but also by ordinary people talking in their kitchens.’ — Rachel Donadio, New York Times‘Alexievich’s work follows the strands of thought and emotion wherever her voices take her – through nightmares, but also flashes of joy … The work is unique in the intimacy of the experience transmitted through the writing: which is, after all, only the ability to have a human ear, to listen, and to publish.’ — John Lloyd, Financial Times‘I am engrossed in Svetlana Alexievich’s extraordinary Second-hand Time, an oral tapestry of post-Soviet Russia.’ — Julian Barnes, Guardian

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Book Synopsis'Would you like to know where Putin comes from? What the Russians are like today? And why? Read this book' SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH'Brilliant and immersive ... reportage at its brave and luminous best' OBSERVERTo be a journalist is to tell the truth. To be patriotic is to be critical, honest, and fearless.I Love Russia takes us to places that non-Russians have never seen and brings us voices we have never heard. It is Elena Kostyuchenko’s courageous attempt to document Russia as experienced by those whom it systematically and brutally erases: village girls recruited into sex work, queer people in the outer provinces, patients and doc­tors at a Ukrainian maternity ward, and reporters like herself.At once uncompromising and deeply humane, it stitches reportage and personal essays into a kaleidoscopic, often other-worldly journey. Here is Russia as it is, not as we imagine it.I Love Russia may be the last work from her homeland Kostyuchenko will publish for a long time – perhaps ever. She writes driven by the conviction that the greatest form of love and patriotism is criticism. And because the threat of Putin’s Russia extends beyond herself, beyond Crimea, and beyond Ukraine.This is a singular portrait of a nation, and of a woman who refuses to be silenced.'Elena's bravery and reportage are astonishing' CHRISTINA LAMB'Kostyuchenko is an important guide to the twenty-first century' TIMOTHY SNYDER*A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023*Trade ReviewBrilliant and immersive ... reportage at its brave and luminous best * Luke Harding, Observer *Fearless reporting… shocking and moving… This gritting insider’s take on Russia will prove more helpful than the welter of book by western experts when it comes to countering Putin’s disinformation * Sunday Times, *Book of the Week* *I Love Russia is full of rigorous journalistic detail, but is also deeply personal, beautifully written ... real and intimate * Rob Hastings, I Paper *Few have tried to examine the life of ordinary people in the world's biggest country (by physical size) the way this one does ... [Elena's] style of brave, intimate reporting is likely to be a rarity in Russia for years to come * New York Times *Elena Kostyuchenko is an important guide to the twenty-first century. The Russia she recounts here is the Russia we need to understand * Timothy Snyder *

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Book Synopsis'Would you like to know where Putin comes from? What the Russians are like today? And why? Read this book' SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH'Brilliant and immersive ... reportage at its brave and luminous best' OBSERVERTo be a journalist is to tell the truth. To be patriotic is to be critical, honest, and fearless.I Love Russia takes us to places that non-Russians have never seen and brings us voices we have never heard. It is Elena Kostyuchenko’s courageous attempt to document Russia as experienced by those whom it systematically and brutally erases: village girls recruited into sex work, queer people in the outer provinces, patients and doc­tors at a Ukrainian maternity ward, and reporters like herself.At once uncompromising and deeply humane, it stitches reportage and personal essays into a kaleidoscopic, often other-worldly journey. Here is Russia as it is, not as we imagine it.I Love Russia may be the last work from her homeland Kostyuchenko will publish for a long time – perhaps ever. She writes driven by the conviction that the greatest form of love and patriotism is criticism. And because the threat of Putin’s Russia extends beyond herself, beyond Crimea, and beyond Ukraine.This is a singular portrait of a nation, and of a woman who refuses to be silenced.'Elena's bravery and reportage are astonishing' CHRISTINA LAMB'Kostyuchenko is an important guide to the twenty-first century' TIMOTHY SNYDER*A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023*Trade ReviewBrilliant and immersive ... reportage at its brave and luminous best * Luke Harding, Observer *Fearless reporting… shocking and moving… This gritting insider’s take on Russia will prove more helpful than the welter of book by western experts when it comes to countering Putin’s disinformation * Sunday Times, *Book of the Week* *I Love Russia is full of rigorous journalistic detail, but is also deeply personal, beautifully written ... real and intimate * Rob Hastings, I Paper *Few have tried to examine the life of ordinary people in the world's biggest country (by physical size) the way this one does ... [Elena's] style of brave, intimate reporting is likely to be a rarity in Russia for years to come * New York Times *Elena Kostyuchenko is an important guide to the twenty-first century. The Russia she recounts here is the Russia we need to understand * Timothy Snyder *Elena's bravery and reportage are astonishing - the Russia we never see, every page another insight into life under Putin * Christina Lamb, author of Our Bodies, Their Battlefields *A fascinating, frightening, compulsively readable chronicle of life in Putin's Russia. As a girl, Elena Kostyuchenko wanted to believe in her country; as a journalist she has dedicated her life to exposing its darkness. Her prose is haunting, edgy, searing. Her stories are unforgettable, and deeply important * Carol Off, author of All We Leave Behind *A haunting book of rare courage. Kostyuchenko's searing reportage takes the reader under the skin of a Russia that few outsiders get to see. With spare, unfliching prose she lays bare the cynicism and corruption, but also the bravery and heart, of her beloved country * Clarissa Ward, author of On All Fronts *Not only does Kostyuchenko find her way into the very darkness, she goes for its blackest corners. . . . The good news that emerges is her talent. Read her. It's worth it * Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize *Would you like to know where Putin comes from? What the Russians are like today? And why? Read this book. For years, the author has been keeping a diary of the soul of her people, with love and with hate. Scientists claim that there is no place in the body where the soul resides. So where is it then? The author goes to homes and schools, sits at weddings and celebrations, asking about love and hate, children and parents. We get to see the rise of the monster that now leaves its footprints in Kyiv, Bucha, and Irpin — and how it forces the whole world to fear the future * Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of Second-hand Time *Bold, revelatory ... This is remarkable, courageous first-person journalism from a Russian woman who was raised a proud patriot, and now finds herself compelled to tell the awful truth of the country's oppressive authoritarianism under Vladamir Putin * Big Issue *In this sharp-edged debut, Kostyuchenko shares experiences from her harrowing career as a reporter for Novaya Gazeta, a Moscow-based independent newspaper ... Throughout, Kostyuchenko's journalistic integrity is unquestionable and the dangers she faces are very real. It's a vivid and poignant account * Publishers Weekly *Injustice screams out from the tenacious reporting * Times Literary Supplement *

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