Brisbane: A Novel
Eugene Vodolazkin
A powerful exploration of identity, purpose, love, music and mortality by an
award-winning writer, set against a backdrop of Russia-Ukraine unrest
‘This novel counterposes
past and present, self and
other. It can be defined as
an exercise in
Dostoyevskian polyphony,
and certainly few
contemporary writers are
as steeped in the Russian
greats as Vodolazkin. But
it’s also a sophisticated and
frequently moving study in
dissonance, dedicated to
pointing out contrasts
between art and life,
beauty and decay, intention
and outcome. And, yes,
between Ukraine and
Russia.’
Booklist
‘The main thing is not to grieve
over what hasn’t happened yet.
Because then you’ve got
double woes: first, Parkinson’s
and second, your grief. Start
helping someone and that will
help you yourself.’
‘If your days are shortened in
this disease, [they] will be
given depth instead of length.’
25 April 2012. Paris. Celebrated Ukrainian guitarist Gleb Yanovsky misses a tremolo during his
Paris concert. The audience doesn’t notice but Gleb worries what this stumbling of his fingers
might mean. His fears are confirmed when he is diagnosed with Parkinson’s less than a year later.
‘We’ll get through this together,’ his wife reassures him, ‘All of it.’ But they have no idea of the
events which are about to unfold.
On the plane back from Paris, Gleb meets a Russian writer, Nestor. Born in Kyiv in Ukraine, Gleb
now considers himself Russian – Nestor tells Gleb, ‘you intrigue me... you combine two nations
and I want to know exactly how.’ Gleb agrees that Nestor can write his biography. As the
Parkinson’s diagnosis sinks in, Gleb is forced to look towards a time when he will be unable to
play – an unthinkable prospect for a professional musician – and he and Nestor are drawn
together as Gleb recalls his childhood, his musical training, his first love Anna, his marriage to
Katya, the building of his career as a musician, and Katya’s sadness that they don’t have children.
Then, one day, a desperate letter arrives out of the blue from Gleb’s first love Anna. Her 13 year
daughter Vera, a talented pianist, has liver cancer – Anna, who is now struggling with mental
health issues herself, asks if Gleb and Katya can help Vera. United in their love of music and their
fear of death, Gleb and Vera practise and perform together, giving a new focus to their lives and
providing some relief from their illnesses. But the grains of sand are slowly running down…
Brisbane is a richly layered narrative from award-winning writer Eugene Vodolazkin (born in
Ukraine and now living in Russia), which explores universal themes including music and art,
identity and purpose, community and belonging, nationalism and individualism, weakness and
mortality, and giftedness versus graft. Through the dual narrative of Gleb’s day to day life after his
diagnosis and his recounting of his life to Nestor, the hopes, dreams and fears of Gleb, his family
and friends are explored against the backdrop of a restless Ukraine suspicious of Russia and its
power.
‘As the [war] has unfolded, Vodolazkin’s depiction of these two languages as part of one and the
same person, as brothers and foes simultaneously, while not completely new for me, has
introduced more nuance into my thinking. For an English reader less familiar with the relationship
between Russia and Ukraine, the novel may well be a revelation.’
Marian Schwartz,
Literary Hub
‘Intensely lyrical and tender, while punctuated by moments of transfixing beauty, violence,
ecstasy, and pain, Vodolazkin’s masterpiece is at once relatable and transcendent,
straightforward and multi-layered, rational and mystical. But what makes it especially relevant and
poignant today, is its examination of the intertwined fates of two nations, Russia and Ukraine,
through the lens of changing political regimes and complicated family relations.’
Dr. Marina Alexandrova,
Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, University of Texas at Austin
‘The magic of Vodolazkin’s talent takes place in the level of ideas and plot… and in the level of
words and sounds. Vodolazkin plays with both Russian and Ukrainian languages that were not
lost in translation.’
Alexandra Guzeva, Russia Beyond
About the author and translator:
Eugene Vodolazkin is the author of Laurus, which won both of Russia’s major literary awards -
the National Big Book Award and the Yasnaya Polyana Book Award – and was shortlisted for the
National Bestseller Prize and the Russian Booker Prize. An expert in medieval history and
folklore, Vodolazkin was born in Kiev in 1964 and has worked in the department of Old Russian
Literature at Pushkin House since 1990. He lives with his family in St Petersburg, Russia.
Marian Schwartz, who translated this novel into English, is a former President of the American
Literary Translators Association and the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts
translation fellowships and numerous prizes. She has also translated works by Berberova,
Radzinsky, Bulgakov, Olesha, Lermontov and Tolstoy into English.
Hardback, 9781636080451, £17.99
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