Your Ad Could Go Here: Stories

Written by Oksana Zabuzhko

Narrated by Susan Ericksen

Oksana Zabuzhko, author of “the most influential Ukrainian book in the fifteen years since independence,” Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, returns with a gripping short story collection.

Oksana Zabuzhko, Ukraine’s leading public intellectual, is called upon to make sense of the unthinkable reality of our times. In this breathtaking short story collection, she turns the concept of truth over in her hands like a beautifully crafted pair of gloves. From the triumph of the Orange Revolution, which marked the start of the twenty-first century, to domestic victories in matchmaking, sibling rivalry, and even tennis, Zabuzhko manages to shock the reader by juxtaposing things as they are—inarguable, visible to the naked eye—with how things could be, weaving myth and fairy tale into pivotal moments just as we weave a satisfying narrative arc into our own personal mythologies.

At once intimate and worldly, these stories resonate with Zabuzhko’s irreverent and prescient voice, echoing long after reading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Nina Murray and Halyna Hryn
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781799759997

Oksana Zabuzhko

Oksana Zabuzhko is one of Ukraine’s most celebrated contemporary writers and the author of more than twenty books. She graduated from the Department of Philosophy of Kiev’s Shevchenko University and obtained her PhD in philosophy of arts. Since publishing her influential novel Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex (1996, published in 2011 in English translation by Halyna Hryn), she has been working as a freelance author. Zabuzhko lives in Kiev, where she and her partner, artist Rostyslav Luzhetskyy, operate a small publishing house. Zabuzhko’s books have been translated into fifteen languages. Among her numerous acknowledgments are a MacArthur Grant (2002), the Antonovych International Foundation Prize (2008), the Order of Princess Olga (2009), and the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine (2019). Her magnum opus, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets (2010, published in 2012 in English translation by Nina Murray), won the Angelus Central European Literary Prize (2013) for the best novel of Eastern and Central Europe.

Reviews for Your Ad Could Go Here

[Sandra Zuks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an extremely powerful short story collection that is set in the Ukraine. It deals with themes around life under Soviet rule, folk lore, obsession, female agency & the orange revolution.
Zabuzhko writes visceral truths in an intense & intoxicating way. A lot of these stories will stay with me & a couple gave me shivers.

[tinwara · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Your ad could go here is a somewhat confusing collection of short stories by the Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabushko (1960). Confusing, because there seems to be little more to bind these stories than that they were written by Zabushko and translated into English. This collection really cries out for an introduction from the compiler, with some explanation and background information. But all I can say about it now, based on the dates of the translations (which are mentioned, as opposed to the publication dates of the original stories) is that the oldest story dates from before 1998 and the newest from before 2020.To be honest, there are a few more factors that the stories have in common. For example, all stories have a woman as the main character, are set (predominantly) in Ukraine and they have a slightly ironic undertone. The female protagonists are certainly not spared. So much for the similarities. Yet there are also big differences. For example in writing style, which is sometimes very literary and sometimes quite accessible. Or in genre: there is a fairytale, a story that is becoming more and more surrealistic, while there is also a hyper-realistic politically oriented story. Just to name a few examples. And the stories are sometimes set in medieval Ukraine, sometimes in Soviet times and sometimes in the present time.In short, you could call it quite a varied collection of stories. As far as I'm concerned, that also applies to how I value the stories. There were stories that I reluctantly dragged through, and stories that I found almost unreadable, so difficult. While there were also stories that I would give 5 stars without a doubt. That makes it almost impossible to appreciate the bundle as a whole. My rating doesn't do justice to some stories, but is too much credit for others. Still, I would - cautiously - recommend the collection to anyone who wants to learn more about life in Ukraine, especially from a woman's point of view. After all, there is not that much translated work by Ukrainian female writers, and Zabushko is a keen observer of human nature.