Secondhand time : the last of the Soviets / Svetlana Alexievich ; translated by Bela Shayevich.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aleksievich, Svetlana, 1948-

Standardized Title:

Vremi͡a sekond khėnd. English

Language:

English

Russian

Subjects (All):

Post-communism--Russia (Federation).

Post-communism.

Oral history.

Russia (Federation).

Russia (Federation)--Social conditions--1991-.

Social conditions.

Soviet Union--Social conditions.

Soviet Union.

Russia (Federation)--Biography.

Soviet Union--Biography.

Oral history--Russia (Federation).

Oral history--Soviet Union.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 470 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First U.S. Edition.

Other Title:

Second hand time

Place of Publication:

New York : Random House, [2016]

Summary:

"From the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Svetlana Alexievich, comes the first English translation of her latest work, an oral history of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia. Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive documentary style, Secondhand Time is a monument to the collapse of the USSR, charting the decline of Soviet culture and speculating on what will rise from the ashes of communism. As in all her books, Alexievich gives voice to women and men whose stories are lost in the official narratives of nation-states, creating a powerful alternative history from the personal and private stories of individuals"-- Provided by publisher.

"Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive style of oral history, Secondhand Time is a monument to the collapse of the USSR, charting the decline of Soviet culture and speculating on what will rise from the ashes of Communism. As in all her books, Alexievich gives voice to women and men whose stories are lost in the official narratives of nation-states, creating a powerful alternative history from the personal and private stories of individuals. When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize in Literature, they praised her 'polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time,' and cited her for inventing 'a new kind of literary genre.' Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, added that her work comprises 'a history of emotions--a history of the soul'"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chronology

Remarks from an accomplice

I. The Consolation of Apocalypse

Snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (1991-2001)

Ten Stories in a Red Interior

On the beauty of dictatorship and the mystery of butterflies in cement

On brothers and sisters, victims and executioners...and the electorate

On cries and whispers...and exhilaration

On the lonely red marshal and three days of forgotten revolution

On the mercy of memories and the lust for meaning

On a different Bible and a different kind of believer

On the cruelty of the flames and salvation from above

On the sweetness of suffering and the trick of the Russian soul

On a time when anyone who kills believes that they are serving God

On the little red flag and the smile of the axe

II. The Charms of Emptiness

Snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (2002-2012)

Ten Stories In The Absence of an Interior

On Romeo and Juliet...except their names were Margarita and Abulfaz

On people who instantly transformed after the fall of communism

On a loneliness that resembles happiness

On wanting to kill them all and the horror of realizing you really wanted to do it

On the old crone with a braid and the beautiful young woman

On a Stranger's Grief that God has deposited on your doorstep

On life the bitch and one hundred grammes of fine powder in a little white vase

On how nothing disgusts the dead and the silence of dust

On the darkness of the evil one and "the other life we can build out of this one"

On courage and what comes after

Notes from an everywoman.

Notes:

First published in Russian in 2013.

ISBN:

9780399588808

0399588809

OCLC:

939597136