Presentation of Libido by Belarusian Novelist Illya Sin
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: September 7, 2023, 19:00 – 21:00
Belarusian author Illya Sin (1978) is a key figure in the country’s cultural life, especially as a novelist and performance artist. He is a member of the Minsk-based group BumBamLit and the Theatre of Psychic Imbalance, and is the author of Broken Puppets, Fiction and other books. His 2018 novel Libido is a major work of what is referred to as “new Belarusian prose”. The plot of the parable, the atmosphere of which brings to mind the films of Tarkovsky, is set in a post-Soviet city during a time of war, a precursor to the war in Ukraine that has been going on since 2014. A sex worker, Marie, moves to the city, her profession threatened by the latest technology... will she find a way out of despair, apathy and omnipresent destruction?
In 2019, the novel received the Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Award for the best Belarusian prose work of the year, “for its conceptual embodiment of contemporary perception of the world and effective use of experimental writing techniques”.
The Czech edition of the novel, released by publishers Nakladatelství Pavel Mervart, will be introduced in the presence of the writer, who will speak with the book’s translator, the poet Max Ščur, and critic Jana Hubáčková. Introduced by Jáchym Topol.