Volodymyr Rafeyenko, author
Moderated by Oleh Kotsyuba, Manager of Publications, HURI
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With elements of magical realism, Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s novel combines a wicked sense of humor with political analysis, philosophy, poetry, and moral interrogation. The Length of Days: An Urban Ballad features a wild cast of characters and cameo appearances by Rosa Luxemburg, Amy Winehouse, and other cult figures. Several embedded narratives attributed to one character—an alcoholic chemist-turned-massage-therapist—broaden the reader’s view of the funny, ironic, and tragic lives of people who remained in the occupied Donbas after Russia’s initial aggression in 2014.
As the author’s last novel written originally in the Russian language, The Length of Days is a deeply Ukrainian work, set mostly in the composite Donbas city of Z—an uncanny foretelling of what this letter has come to symbolize since February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Witty references to popular culture—Ukrainian and European—underline the international and transnational aspects of Ukrainian literature. The novel ends on the hopeful note that even death cannot have the final word. The inhabitants of Z prove magically resilient and grow in power with each incarnation.
The Length of Days is translated by Sibelan Forrester and includes an introduction by Marci Shore. Explore the book
| | Volodymyr Rafeyenko is an award-winning Ukrainian writer, poet, translator, literary and film critic. Having graduated from the Donetsk University with a degree in Russian philology and culture studies, he wrote and published entirely in Russian. Following the outbreak of the Russian aggression in Ukraine’s east, Rafeyenko left Donetsk and moved to a town near Kyiv where he wrote Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love, his first novel in the Ukrainian language, which was shortlisted for the Taras Shevchenko National Prize, Ukraine’s highest award in arts and culture. Among other recognitions, he is the winner of the Volodymyr Korolenko Prize for the novel Brief Farewell Book (1999) and the Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award for the novel The Length of Days (2017). |
Moderator: Oleh Kotsyuba, Manager of Publications, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
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LOCATION: Room K-354, CGIS-Knafel (North Building), 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20221026T203000Z DTEND:20221026T220000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR