Mesopotamia
Serhiy Zhadan's ode to Kharkiv, the predominantly Russian-speaking city in Eastern Ukraine where he lives, is a gripping book. Zhadan, a leading post-Soviet Ukrainian author, uses prose and poetry to confront the disappointment, ambiguities, and complexities that have distinguished Ukrainian life in the decades since the Soviet Union's demise. His story paints a vivid picture of the lives of working-class Ukrainians who are battling an unforgiving fate: the path forward appears to be barred at every turn by demagogic forces and relics of the Russian past. The nine interrelated stories and accompanying poems by Zhadan are set in a city that is both familiar and mysterious, and his characters are both familiar and weird. His novels reveal the grit and heaviness of halted lives, the universal longing for companionship, and a wistful knowledge of the off-kilter and even perverted nature of love, following a kind of magical-realist logic.
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