Lyudmila Ulitskaya [Russia]

Lyudmila Ulitskaya was born in 1943 in Davlekanovo, Bashkiria, where her family was sent after being evacuated during World War II. She grew up in Moscow. After studying biology, she worked as a geneticist at the Institute of General Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR beginning in 1967. She was dismissed in 1970 for disseminating samizdat literature and worked for two years at the Jewish Chamber Music Theater as a literary consultant. She eventually became a freelance writer. Her first publication, the long story »Сонечка« (1992; »Sonechka«, 2005), appeared in the literary magazine »Novyj mir«. In 1994, the book was named best translated book of the year in France and earned the author the French Medici Prize. In it, as in her subsequent stories and novels, she depicts the everyday world of people in the Soviet Union whose lives are intensely intertwined. Their strong emotions are challenged by the adversities of everyday life. In terms of style, she brings together Russian and Jewish narrative traditions and raises them to a contemporary level. Her novel »Даниэль Штайн, переводчик« (2006; »Daniel Stein, Interpreter«, 2011) is based on the life narrative of a Jewish Catholic who was able to save many of his fellow believers through his informational advantage as an interpreter for the Belarusians who were allied with the Nazis. He later converted to Catholicism and eventually went to Israel, where as a monk he founded a community modeled upon the early Christians. His death in 1998 was most likely an assassination disguised as a traffic accident. The large-scale social panorama »Зелёный шатёр« (2011; »The Big Green Tent«, 2011) tells of three friends who become dissidents in the Soviet Union. »Лестница Якова« (2015; »Jacob’s Ladder«, 2019) is also a panoramic account of Russian society in the 20th century, this time through the story of an extended family. »Without compromise, Ulitzkaja shows what the Soviet system made of people too weak to resist it … The novel is Ulitzkaja’s most personal book.« (»Süddeutsche Zeitung«) Her most recent publication is »Бумажный театр: непроза« (tr: Paper Theatre. No-Prose), a collection of screenplays, diary entries, memoirs, and plays.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya has also openly advocated for her political beliefs. Thus, in addition to criticizing Vladimir Putin’s policies, in March 2014 she joined other scholars and cultural figures in expressing their opposition to the Russian authorities’ policies in Crimea.

Her books have been translated into more than 33 languages. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Alexandr Men Prize for intercultural mediation between Russia and Germany in 2008, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2014, and the Siegfried Lenz Prize in 2020.

The author lives and works in Moscow.

 

Bibliography

 

Сонечка

Новый мир, 1992

 

Бедные родственники

СЛОВО/SLOVO

Москва, 1993

 

Медея и её дети

Новый Мир, № 3 и 4, 1996

 

Весёлые похороны

Вагриус

Москва, 1997

 

Казус Кукоцкого

Новый мир, № 8 и 9, 2000

 

Девочки

Эксмо

Москва, 2002

 

Сквозная линия

Эксмо

Москва, 2002

 

Искренне ваш Шурик

Время

Москва, 2003

 

Люди нашего царя

Эксмо

Москва, 2005

 

Даниэль Штайн, переводчик

Эксмо

Москва, 2006

 

Русское варенье и другое

Эксмо

Москва, 2008

 

Зелёный шатёр

Эксмо

Москва, 2011

 

Священный мусор

АСТ

Москва, 2012

 

Детство 45-53. А завтра будет счастье

АСТ

Москва, 2013

 

Лестница Якова

АСТ

Москва, 2015

 

Дар нерукотворный

АСТ

Москва, 2016

 

О теле души

Лекторий Прямая Речь

Москва, 2019

 

Бумажный театр: непроза

АСТ

Москва, 2020

 

ENGLISH

 

Sonechka

Schocken

[Translation Arch Tait]

New York, 2005

 

Medea and Her Children

Schocken

[Translation Arch Tait]

New York, 1996

 

The Funeral Party

Schocken

[Translation Arch Tait]

New York, 1997

 

The Kukotsky Enigma

Northwestern University Press

[Translation Diane Nemec Ignashev]

Evanston, 2016

 

Daniel Stein, Interpreter

Overlook Press

[Translation Arch Tait]

New York, 2011

 

The Big Green Tent

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

[Translation Bela Shayevich]

New York, 2011

 

Jacob’s Ladder

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

[Translation Polly Gannon]

New York, 2019