They’re about to announce the flight. I understand that it’s almost impossible to leave. Can you really leave paradise so easily? Can you say: “Thanks for everything but it’s time for me to go… I have stuff to do at home.”
Of course I have stuff to do. Important and necessary stuff. But how can you leave paradise? A place where you are surrounded with tender care twenty-four hours a day. Where it’s impossible to feel lonely for even a second. Where people give you gift after gift with selfless and sincere warmth and goodness. Where the sky does not abandon you in daytime, shining with clear blueness, or night, showering you with sparkling gems whose weight you can sense even if you can’t touch them.
Where does this all come from? What did I do to deserve this?
When I left home exactly one month ago, and set off into the world, I left more than just my familiar comfortable home, my warm bed and regular meals, I also left the ubiquitous striving to plan, calculate and organize everything in my life the way I think it should be, the way I think would be best. But nothing at home had ever worked out the way it had during this month on the road. Why?
Here on the road, I stood in the dark on a path made through the snow in the outskirts of Erzurum, or near the rustling reeds of Aswan, bearing eloquent evidence of the roadside swamp, and I didn’t know where I would spend the night, whether there would be any supper after a whole day of active movement; whether I would be safe. I didn’t and could not know. I couldn’t organize or plan anything. As a last resort, I would turn round to ask. And He Whom I asked would delightedly extend hands filled with gifts to me — hands He Himself was tired of holding back. These hands are always extended, and I turn to them so rarely. And no wonder because I’m not used to being in paradise.
I’d travelled so much before. I’d accepted these gifts so many times before. But never before had they been so generous. Why?
Well, because they aren’t going to just fall on your head from the sky. They need hands into which He places them. Here, in these countries I’d gone through, I could see for myself how open palms were raised five times a day in order to accept and fulfill His will. You know this will when you give yourself entirely into His hands.
But it’s time for me to finish my story.
March — November 2009
Translated by Ainsley Morse & Mihaela Pacurar
About the Authors
All the three authors are winners of the prestigious Debut Prize for young writers.
Igor Savelyev was born in 1983 in Ufa (Bashkiria) where he still lives and works as a crime reporter for the local news agency. He has a degree in Philology from Ufa University. His short novel Pale City, based on his own hitchhiking experiences, was shortlisted for the Debut and Belkin prizes in 2004 and published in France. Critics have noted his “masterful, finely chiseled style based on brilliant counterpoints like a virtuoso music piece.” “Here realism is bordering on phantasmagoria, a striking sample of new-generation psychological prose.”
Irina Bogatyreva, born in 1982, grew up on the Volga. She has seven novels to her name and has won several important literary prizes, including the prestigious Debut Prize for her novel Auto-Stop (Off the Beaten Track) which came out from a major publishing house in Russia. Bogatyreva spotlights the most topical issues of Russian life and enjoys both readers’ and critics’ acclaim.
Tatiana Mazepina is the latest winner of the Debut Prize for a travelogue about her Eastern travels. She is a member of the “Society of Free Travelers” and works as a journalist writing on religious matters.
“An unusually gifted generation is entering Russian literature. Literature has not seen such an influx of energy in a long time. This new generation — both the individual writers and the phenomenon as a whole — deserves great attention.”
THE DEBUT PRIZE FOR YOUNG AUTHORS
Debut launched its international publishing program in 2009. Three anthologies of Debut winners in English translation have been published. French, German, Spanish, and two Chinese editions have come out while Italian and Serbian editions are under way.
The prize was established in 2000 by Andrei Skoch, the founder of the Pokolenie Foundation for humanitarian projects. Debut is coordinated by the Booker-prize winning author Olga Slavnikova. A huge database of texts by young writers has been accumulated.
Awarded annually the Debut Prize is the largest and most authoritative Russian project today spotlighting young talents. Every year Debut receives up to 50,000 submissions from across Russia and worldwide. This new generation is declaring itself with increasing confidence in all literary areas.
“These emerging writers throw around their technical mastery, richness of perception and uniqueness of experience with a confidence that’s almost terrifying. This is not a collection to miss.”
“There is clearly a very varied and committed range of young writers in Russia. They provide new perspectives and deserve to be heard.”
“Meet Russia’s young, exportable writers…”
“Debut… a project of awe-inspiring ambition in a climate ripe for dystopian fantasy…”
About the Publisher
GLAS NEW RUSSIAN WRITING
Contemporary Russian literature in English translation
The premier showcase for contemporary Russian writing in English translation, GLAS has been discovering new writers and rediscovering under-appreciated past masters since 1991.
Based in Moscow, GLAS has published anthologies grouped around a unifying theme (e.g. revolution, fear, childhood, women’s views) as well as books by single authors.
With more than 100 names represented, GLAS is the most comprehensive English-language source on Russian letters today — a must for libraries, students of world literature, and all those who love good writing.
Vlas Doroshevich. What the Emperor Cannot Do. Tales and Legends of the Orient.
Michele A. Berdy. The Russian Word’s Worth. A humorous and informative guide to the Russian language, culture and translation. 2nd rev. ed.
The Scared Generation: Vasil Bykov’s The Manhunt and Boris Yampolsky’s The Old Arbat.
Mikhail Levitin. A Jewish God in Paris. Three novellas.
T.J. Perry. Twelve Stories of Russia: a Novel I Guess. 3rd. ed.
Copyright