Boris Khersonsky – Family Archive: Vanished Eastern Europe
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: November 28, 2018, 19:00 – 21:00
The Ukrainian poet, journalist and doctor Boris Khersnosky, who lives in Odessa, will present the first Czech translation of his novel in verse Family Archive.
It tells the story of his Slav-Jewish family, which plays out against the backdrop of the 20thcentury and primarily in the area of Central and Eastern Europe. The book takes us to Odessa, Lvov and Karlovy Vary but also Kolyma, Jersalem and Brooklyn.
With the detachment of a sober observer and careful documentarian, the author outlines the story of four generations of members of his own – at one time very spread out – family in the context of dramatic historical turns and disasters. These include WWI, the Bolshevik revolution, the years of Stalin’s terror, WWII, the Holocaust and the post-war totalitarian period. The book paints a complete picture of the period with the help of captions about those photographed and their appearances and attributes, as well as drawing attention to apparently inconsequential details about their environments. From these fragments it gradually burrows beneath the surface of events into the tragic fates of family members and the disappearing world of East European Jewry, as well as Orthodox Christianity as an ethos beneath the façade of Soviet reality.
Also taking part in a discussion of the book will be its translator and the poet Ludmila Khersonsky, creator of the collages in Family Archive.
Interpretation into Czech provided.