The History of Culture at the Beginning of the Century
English world rights (selection; Yale UP), Russia (Agorisk), Finland (selection; Sammakko), Hungary (selection; Jelenkor)
Only in an environment in which anachronistic industrial plants sit in the landscape like dinosaurs, rotting away as the last witnesses of the grandiose Soviet experiment, could the post-proletarian melancholy and punk poetry emerge that has earned Serhiy Zhadan the reputation of Ukraine’s most popular lyricist.
»Ten years ago, they called him the Ukrainian Rimbaud, now he is Zhadan first and foremost. His poetry is the way I imagine poetry at the beginning of the...
Only in an environment in which anachronistic industrial plants sit in the landscape like dinosaurs, rotting away as the last witnesses of the grandiose Soviet experiment, could the post-proletarian melancholy and punk poetry emerge that has earned Serhiy Zhadan the reputation of Ukraine’s most popular lyricist.
»Ten years ago, they called him the Ukrainian Rimbaud, now he is Zhadan first and foremost. His poetry is the way I imagine poetry at the beginning of the century: secure in tone, immaculate in the details, piercingly visual, anarchic and uncompromisingly social, at the same time absolutely poetical, unique and unexpected in its plasticity of associations. It’s exactly the kind of alternative cinema and also the alternative music and the alternative theatre that we lack. And it’s an alternative to that which is traditionally considered Ukrainian in general.« from the afterword by Yuri Andrukhovych
»This collection of Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan’s poems will likely cement his reputation as the unflinching witness to the turbulent social and political travails of his nation. With an acerbic tone that will seem familiar to admirers of Franz Wright or Charles Bukowski, Zhadan’s no-nonsense verses are sure to strike more than a few nerves.« World Literature Today
»A startling collection of verse.« Askold Melnyczuk, Times Literary Supplement
»[Zhadan’s] work has become important to a generation experiencing, simultaneously, war and global interconnectedness … With this volume, [translators] Tkacz and Phipps will whet Anglophone readers’ appetites for Zhadan’s poetic engagement with a dangerous, polarized, uncertain world … The United States needs a Zhadan as much as Ukraine does.« Amelia Glaser, Los Angeles Review of Books
»Stunning translations that don’t read like translations, but read as English-language poems … When we read this book of poetry we are letting ourselves be part of history being formed.« Olena Jennings, Ukrainian Weekly
»Undergirding Zhadan’s poetry is a humanitarian desire to improve the physical, cultural, and spiritual conditions in which Ukrainian people live, today and tomorrow … Zhadan’s poems reveal the heart and soul of places forgotten, hidden, and unseen, so that we may also witness and understand and remember.« Kristina Lucenko, Our Life / Nashe Zhyttia
»This collection of Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan’s poems will likely cement his reputation as the unflinching witness to the turbulent social and political travails of his nation. With an acerbic tone that will seem familiar to admirers of Franz Wright or Charles Bukowski, Zhadan’s no-nonsense verses are sure to strike more than a few nerves.« World...
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Persons
Serhij Zhadan
Serhiy Zhadan was born in Starobilsk, near Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, in 1974 and studied German at Kharkiv University. He has been one of the most influential figures in the Kharkiv scene since the early 1990s. He made his literary debut at 17 and has published numerous volumes of poetry and prose. He was awarded the Jan Michalski Prize and the Brücke Berlin Prize (together with translators Juri Durkot und Sabine Stöhr) for Ворошиловград. BBC Ukraine named Ворошиловград the Book of the Decade. In 2022, Zhadan was named Man of the Year by Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) and awarded the prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for his »outstanding artistic work and his humanitarian stance with which he turns to the people suffering from war and...
Serhiy Zhadan was born in Starobilsk, near Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, in 1974 and studied German at Kharkiv University. He has been one of the...
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Cease-Fire
Arabesques
»The trams haven’t been running since February.« Time and again, we encounter moments of calm in this city haunted by the spectre of war. People meet up in places that are still more or less...
English world rights (Yale UP), France (Noir sur Blanc), Netherlands (De Geus), Sweden (Ersatz), Denmark (Jensen & Dalgaard), Finland (Sammakko), Poland (Czarne), Romania (Cartier)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Radio Reading (MDR / NDR)
Chronicle of My Own Breath
Poland (Literackie)
The Price of Our Freedom
»They belong to us, they are one of us and we want them in« – Yuri Andrukhovych had been waiting for this sentence, which presented the prospect of EU membership to his country, for many years. It was uttered in Brussels, three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. »A deep exhale – amidst the blaring sirens.«
Twenty years ago, his brilliant volume of essays My Final...
Sky Above Kharkiv
This volume contains a selection of texts that Serhiy Zhadan has been publishing on Facebook since the start of the war on February 24, 2022.
He doesn’t have time to keep a diary....
English world rights (Yale UP), Poland (Czarne), Slovak Republic (Brak)
Radio Night
»I have always dreamt of writing a novel that has a sound,« says Yuri Andrukhovych, who has spent his life singing, rehearsing with his band and playing countless concerts. His latest work...
English world rights (NYRB), Spanish world rights (Acantilado), Brazilian Portuguese rights (Editora Zain), France (Noir sur Blanc), Poland (Czytelnik), Slovak Republic (N Press), Hungary (Helikon), Bulgaria (Paradox), Romania (Trei), Croatia (Fraktura), Slovenia (Mladinska Knjiga)
Antenna
Sweden (Fri Tanke), Finland (selection; Sammakko), Poland (Wrocławski Dom Literatury), Hungary (selection; Jelenkor), Bulgaria (Paradox)
The Orphanage
A young teacher plans on bringing his 13-year-old nephew home from the boarding school at the other end of town. The school, in which his working sister has »parked« her son, has come...
English world rights (Yale UP), English Audiobook (Blackstone), Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), Catalan rights (Quaderns Crema), Portuguese rights (Elsinore), France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (Voland), Netherlands (de Geus), Denmark (Jensen & Dalgaard), Sweden (Ersatz), Norway (Pax), Finland (Sammakko), Japan (Bulrush), Poland (Czarne), Czech Republic (Argo), Czech Audiobook (OneHotBook), Slovak Republic (Absynt), Hungary (Magvetö), Republic of Moldova / Romanian rights (Cartier), Estonia (Hea Lugu), Latvia (Janis Roze), Lithuania (Kitos Knygos), Croatia (Edicije Božičević), Slovenia (Beletrina), Greece (Dioptra), North Macedonia (Matica), Belarus (Januškevič), Georgia (Intelekti), Israel (Hakkibutz Hameuchad)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Lindhardt & Ringhof / Saga Egmont)
Justice’s Darlings
Justice’s Darlings, these are crimes and criminals, real and alleged: Bohdan Stashynsky, for example, a KGB officer and assassin who kills the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera in his...
Spanish world rights (Acantilado), Poland (Warstwy), Bulgaria (Paradox)
Why I Am Not Online
»It’s tough to see history being made.« Since the summer of 2014, Serhiy Zhadan notes down his experiences on his journeys into the eastern Ukrainian war zone. They are poetic...
English world rights (selection; Yale UP), Finland (selection; Sammakko), Poland (selection; PIW), Hungary (selection; Jelenkor)
Mesopotamia
English world rights (Yale UP), France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (Voland), Denmark (Jensen & Dalgaard), Sweden (Ersatz), Norway (Pax), Poland (Czarne), Hungary (Magvető), Latvia (Janis Roze), Belorussia (Januskevic), Georgia (Intelekti)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Schall & Wahn)
Small Encyclopedia of Intimate Cities
Yuri Andrukhovych has invested a lot of time in familiarising himself with foreign cities. In some of them, he got stuck for a while. Others have become true parts of his life:...
Spanish world rights (Acantilado), France (Noir sur Blanc), Croatia (Fraktura)
Voroshilovgrad
English world rights (Deep Vellum), Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), Russia (Astrel), Portuguese rights (Elsinore), Arabic world rights (Here&There), France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (Voland), Netherlands (De Geus), Denmark (Jensen & Dalgaard), Sweden (Ersatz), Poland (Czarne), Poland Graphic Novel (Artur Wabik), Czech Republic (Argo), Slovak Republic (Dajama), Bulgaria (Paradox), Republic of Moldova / Romanian rights (Cartier), Latvia (Janis Roze), Croatia (Edicije Božičević), Slovenia (Beletrina), Belarus (Logvinau), Georgia (Intelekti)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Hungary (Europa)
The Secret
Democratic Youth Anthem
Russia (Amphora), Poland (Czarne), Slovak Republic (Brak), Bulgaria (Paradox)
Angels and Demons of the Periphery
Anarchy in the UKR
France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (Voland), Sweden (Bonniers), Norway (Pax), Republic of Moldova / Romanian rights (Cartier), Belarus (Skaryna Press)
Depeche Mode
English world rights (Glagoslav), Russia (Amphora), Italy (Castelvecchi), Sweden (2244/Bonniers), Poland (Czarne), Czech Republic (Éditions Fra), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Paradox), Republic of Moldova / Romanian rights (Cartier), Estonia (Loomingu Raamatukogu), Lithuania (Kitos Knygos), Greece (Dioptra)
Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Schall & Wahn)
Twelve Circles
Spanish world rights (Acantilado), France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (Del Vecchio), Norway (Cappelen Damm), Slovenia (Cankarjeva)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (Spuyten Duyvil), Hungary (Gondolat), Bulgaria (Paradox), Romania (RAO), Lithuania (Lithuanian Writers), Croatia (Fraktura), Serbia (Filip Visnjic)
Big Mac
With the success of Democratic Youth Anthem, Serhiy Zhadan has established himself as the most original counter-voice to the poetic observations of Juri Andruchowytsch. In Big...
Bulgaria (Paradox)
My Europe
Spanish world rights (Acantilado), France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (print edition Mimesis / digital edition GoWare), Hungary (Kijarat), Bulgaria (Lektura), Romania (Polirom)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Czech Republic (Periplum), Croatia (Fraktura)
The Moscoviad
Spanish world rights (Acantilado), France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (Besa), Sweden (Ersatz), Norway (Cappelen Damm), Poland (Czarne), Lithuania (Hieronymus), Croatia (Fraktura), Slovenia (Cankarjeva), Greece (World Books), Israel (Nine Lives Press), Ethiopia/Amharic (Hohe Publisher)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: USA (Spuyten Duyvil), Russia (New Literary Review), Czech Republic (FRA), Slovakia (Kalligram), Hungary (Gondolat), Bulgaria (Paradox), Romania (Allfa), Macedonia (Makedonska Rech), Belarus (ARCHE), Georgia (Sulakauri)
My Final Territory
English world rights (University of Toronto Press), Spanish world rights (Acantilado), Hungary (Racio), Serbia (Kulturni Centar Novi Sad)
Perverzion
The godchild of Rabelais and Bakhtin, Bulgakov and Esterházy, it is a whirligig of forms, styles, and apocryphal traditions – an adventure for readers who view life not as...
USA (Northwestern UP), Spain (Acantilado), Russia (NLO), France (Noir sur Blanc), Italy (Del Vecchio), Finland (Loki Kirjat), Poland (Czarne), Bulgaria (Paradox), Serbia (Clio)