French theatrical company LA COMPAGNIE DES MOTS MIGRATEURS presents a performance for children UNE VICTOIRE EN PAPIER based on Ulitskaya's works - February 2009
Featured titles
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My Father's Letters (NF)
Letters of 16 Russian scientists to their children from the depths of Stalinist GULAG published by Memorial Human Rights Society, Moscow
Rights sold Germany - MSB Matthes & Seitz, Portugal - Relógio D’Água, World English - GRANTA BOOKS
Dr. Alexei Wangenheim, prisoner at the Solovki prison camp who before the arrest was the organizer and head of the Meteorological Service of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in 168 letters sent to his daughter Eleanora from GULAG managed to create an entertaining herbarium of local plants.
Prof. Gavriil Gordon, prisoner at the Dmitlag prison camp who before the arrest was Academic Secretary of the Institute of Educational Research, sent to his children two notebooks containing his own hand-written account of world history and philosophy.
Vladimir Levitsky, prisoner at the Siblag prison camp who before his arrest was a President of Philatelic Society of Kursk, composed a series of short ethnographical essays in letters and postcards sent for his son. All his letters were illuminated by a hand-drawn postal stamps.All of them – and thousands more – cherished a hope to see their children again. All of them died in GULAG, but their "distance learning courses" wasn't a waste of time and energy in deadly conditions of detention: their children later became scientists, researchers, teachers, philatelists...
Technical details: approx. 50.000 words including preface, comments, and glossary; approx. 260 color and b/w drawings and photos.
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Aquarius over Odessa, a novel by Ilya Mitrofanov (1992)
Rights sold: Germany - Volk und Welt, Spain - Lumen
"Unfortunately, AQUARIUS OVER ODESSA will remain the author's final work; the tragic accident that took his life in 1994 has deprived Russian literature of one of its more promising talents." -- Joseph P. Mozur Jr., World Literature Today
The astrological sign of change, Aquarius, bodes neither peace nor goodwill for Mitrofanov's blue-collar hero Semyon Stavraki, a deep-sea diver working in the rough and bustling port of Odessa. Stavraki, an orphan raised in the ruins of postwar Odessa, claims the city as his mother and proudly credits her with having taught him honesty, respect, and tolerance for others. Nevertheless, Stavraki's story illustrates how bad things can befall good people, and his fortunes take a disastrous turn precisely when the star sign appears over the city.
The first-person narrative opens with Stavraki's homecoming from a prison camp in the north of Russia. He tells his life story to a fellow passenger on die train home, a situation reminiscent of that in Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata. As the train draws nearer to the hero's beloved Odessa, the tale picks up intensity, and the idyllic portrayal of Stavraki's love and marriage to a waitress suddenly gives way to a tragic chain of events culminating in his trial and prison sentence for murder.
Stavraki's tale is in many ways an extended metaphor -- life is a plunge into the depths. As the novel progresses, Mitrofanov's hero becomes more and more convincing and real, as do the circumstances in which he lives in the post-Soviet era.
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