new representation
About Joseph Brodsky’s muse, his true love
Next year will mark 30 years since Joseph Brodsky’s death in New York in 1996. Several books about him will surely be published to mark the occasion. But who knows his only muse and true love? Literary scholars agree that his relationship with Marina Basmanova was crucial to Brodsky’s life. The vast majority of his love poems are dedicated to her (M.B.).
Basmanova is still alive today and will be 100 years old in three years. But to this day, she – and a Third – remain the traitors who stabbed the poet in the back at the most difficult moment of his life.
Ramil Khalikov, author of Tatar origin and winner of the Platonov Prize, has now published his book BRODSKY, BASMANOVA, THE THIRD about this relationship. His fictionalized story, based on true events, focuses on the decisive years. Khalikov’s research and conversations with contem-porary witnesses gave him reason to consider the complicated twists and turns of their relationship from a significantly different perspective than before.