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Sofichka, a novel by Fazil Iskander (1997)
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The novella is a third-person, realistic narrative describing the life story of the Abkhazian woman named Sofichka. Sofichka falls in love with the young Rouf, who is half Abkhazian and half Turkish. Sofichka's relatives scorn Rouf, but Sofichka marries him despite the family's opposition. She is a good wife and loves her husband dearly, but Rouf is hated by her kin, and her brother Nuri kills him. Sofichka refuses all advances and does not remarry, remaining true to her husband into old age. Moreover, she repudiates her brother Nuri who, time and again, begs her for forgiveness. In the end, she forgives Nuri but cannot forgive herself. She becomes depressed, believing that she has betrayed her husband, and then becomes ill, and dies. Like most of Iskander's early narratives 'Sofichka' is set in the environs of Chegem. The customs and the lore of the people there have changed little, but the humour and banter of Iskander's early prose have disappeared. Instead, sadness, adversity, and unhappiness prevail. The character of Sofichka, who embodies devotion and goodness, goes down in defeat, and it is juxtaposed with other characters who are jealous, greedy, and rapacious.
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The Triumph of Provocation, collected essays by Józef Mackiewicz
Original Polish title: Zwycięstwo prowokacji
Rights status: available for all languages less Polish and English.
Published by: English - Yale University Press (2009), Polish - Kontra, Russian - Zarya, German - Bergstadtverlag W.G. Korn
This masterful political treatise, first published in 1962, examines the history and nature of Communism as it developed in the Soviet Union and in Poland. Józef Mackiewicz, known for his relentless opposition to Communism, argues that accommodation with the Communists simply helped them to impose their vision of the world and pursue their goal of global domination. He compares Communism to Nazism and insists that the former was the greater threat to the future of humanity.
Mackiewicz's unique interpretation of the differences and similarities between Communism and Nazism is highly relevant to debates about these two systems and to major contemporary issues which are of particular importance to the U.S. and Europe, including radical Islam and the necessity of war and the responsibility for war.
"Mackiewicz, who knew the Nazi and Communist systems at first hand, retains a freshness and a directness that can aid historians and thinkers who today grapple with the problem of understanding Hitler and Stalin together." -- Timothy Snyder, Yale University
"... A work of genius. ...Mackiewicz is one of the most intelligent men we have ever heard." -- Andrei Navrozov, Chronicles
"This salutary book is a reminder of the terrible damage wrought by Communism and of the need, amid the War on Terror, not to lose sight of other ideological challenges to Western values. ... The importance of this work in part rests on the degree to which the autocracy, and indeed the accommodation of the autocracy, that he depicts are not restricted to the case of Communism." -- Jeremy Black, foreword to the 2009 Yale University Press edition
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