Grigori Kanovich – Kids for Two Pennies in Polish

new publication

Polish language edition re-published by Fundacja Pogranicze

Grigori Kanovich‘s novel A KID FOR TWO PENNIES has lost none of its relevance even after 30 years. It was written in 1989 and describes Jews living together with Lithuanians, Russians and Germans in the multi-ethnic border area with the German Empire at Nemunas (Memel) before Second World War. Or rather their co-existence or even better the friction and resentment on all sides. With everyday poverty, the problems with the Russian state power and the deep Jewish longing for the „homeland of the grandfathers“.

Aleksei Nikitin – Sholom Aleichem Prize 2024

new award

Sholom Aleichem Prize 2024 for his novel «In the Face of Fire. Bat Ami»

Aleksei Nikitin’s novel BAT-AMI is not a documentary novel, but its story – inspired in part by the author‘s family history – is based on files relating to 1941-1942 secret service operations from the archives of the Ukrainian Secret Service. These sources enabled the author to tell the true story of the famous boxer Goldinov. Because the widespread theories about what happened to him – the rumours that were still circulating in Kyiv after the war – have largely proven to be false, as has old Yad Vashem version of events. The descriptions of Ukraine’s complex conflicts involving an overpowering Russian brother state, the Soviet secret service, German occupation, partisans and patriotic nationalist freedom fighters cast their shadows even onto the Ukraine of today.

Lev Danilkin – Gagarin biography – in Hungarian

new publication

Hungarian translation published by Helikon

Polls show that Yuri Gagarin is the No. 1 hero in Russian history of the 20th century. It is all the more surprising that for many years there has not been an appropriate open, objective, biography of the first cosmonaut based on current sources in Russia. The Gagarin biography with the title PASSENGER WITH KIDS by Lev Danilkin is an attempt to close all the gaps in the biography of the „Red Icarus“.

«Gagarin is a myth. The first cosmonaut, icon, toy in the hands of the Soviet govern- ment and journalists, but not a man. Lev Danilkin took up this difficult task – to restore Gagarin‘s human status.» THEORY AND PRACTICE

Mikhail Vizel – Pushkin in Quarantine – in Croatian

new publication

Croatian language edition published by Sandorf

Cholera is raging in Russia and parts of the country are in lockdown. The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, already famous at the time, is stuck in Boldino for three months. The planned wedding with his fiancée Natalia Goncharova has to be postponed. He tries twice in vain to get to her in Moscow. Pushkin is worried. And with jealousy that the bride might jump off him. He is furious because, despite bribing the police, he is unable to bypass the roadblocks to Moscow.

Mikhail Vizel in his book PUSHKIN.BOLDINO.QUARANTINE reconstructs the exciting chronology of the Boldino autumn in a witty, amusing and analytically accurate way. Commenting letters from Pushkin to his bride, we are introduced to his love affair, which has to pass an extraordinary stress test during lockdown. We can not only chronologically follow Pushkin‘s passionate ups and downs during quarantine, but finally experience them with compassion based on our own Covid experience.

Irina Leek – children’s books

new representation

illustrated children’s books author

Irina Leek’s books for children starting at the age of 4+ are full of humor and magic. Be it in the style of a detective story in OCTOPUS OSIP – AGENT 008 where little Osig has to go on his first very important mission: the reef is in danger, and only Osip can help save its inhabitants. Be it in the style of the fairy-tale story STARS IN FLUFFY PAWS about lunar marmotics – fluffy cute animals that look like marmots and live on the far side of the Moon in their own magical world.

Anastasia Strokina – children’s books

new representation

award winning children’s books author

Anastasia Strokina was born 1984 in the far North of Russia where she also mainly sets her stories, making them unique by locations, atmosphere and sound. Her philosophical fairy tales have been awarded numerous prizes. Strokina is always travelling a lot to where her stories take place.

These are her latest awards:
2023 Book of the Year Award finalist Internationale Jugendbibliothek Munich
2022 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nominee
2019 Arsenev Award

The agency is proud to present her top 5 wonderful books for children at ages 6+ and 8+, although also adults really enjoy reading these books themselves while reading them aloud to their kids.

Sergii Rudenko – 2023 Drahomán Prize – finalist

new award

2023 Drahomán Prize finalist

Eero Balk (Finland) is a translator from Ukrainian into Finnish. Nominated by the Ukrainian Association in Finland with a translation of the novel Battle for Kyiv (Sankareiden Kiova, Tammi, 2023) written by Serhii Rudenko . He is an alumna of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (1981) and has more than 30 books in his translation heritage. In 2023, he received an honorary award from the WSOY Literary Foundation.

The Drahomán Prize was launched in 2020 by the Ukrainian Institute, PEN Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Book Institute

Grigori Kanovich – Shtetl Romance – in Czech

new publication

Czech translation published by Pavel Mervart

A marvellous family novel, wise and pittoresque on the last 20 years of life in the Eastern European SHTETL. A moving piece of literature of a loss of the Jewish communities drawn by Grigory Kanovich in sympathetic detail against a backdrop of small-town life that is as vivid as anything in Tolstoy. Kanovich weaves into his narrative the long-held beliefs Jews clung to in a dangerous and unpredictable world.

Leonid Yuzefovich – Philhellenes – in Romanian

new publication

Romanian translation published by Editura Litera

The twenties of the 19th century. Greece is fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire. The revolutionaries have many sympathizers throughout Europe who are willing to voluntarily defend the old culture and fight to preserve the old greatness. That is how they are called: Philhellenes – lovers of the Greeks.

After WINTER ROAD, his documentary novel about the last battle of the Russian Revolution (7 languages sold), Leonid Yuzefovich dedicated his talent for narrative non-fiction to another historical war where (not only) Russians were fighting on foreign territory: PHILHELLENES.

“Yuzefovich writes with subtle irony, detailed historical knowledge and a great feeling for language – a literary phenomenon!“
KNIZHNOE OBOZRENIE