The Funeral Party by Ludmila Ulitskaya

The Funeral Party by Ludmila Ulitskaya

August 1991. In a sweltering New York City apartment, a group of Russian migr s gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world. Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CN?

This marvelous group of individuals inhabits the first novel by Ludmila Ulitskaya to be published in English, a book that was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize and has been praised wherever translated editions have appeared. Simultaneously funny and sad, lyrical in its Russian sorrow and devastatingly keen in its observation of character, The Funeral Party introduces to our shores a wonderful writer who captures, wryly and tenderly, our complex thoughts and emotions confronting life and death, love and loss, homeland and exile.

From the Hardcover edition.

LUDMILA ULITSKAYA is one of Russia's most acclaimed and best-selling writers as well as a prominent political activist. A scientist before she began her literary career, she is the author of thirteen works of fiction, three books for children, and six plays. Her awards include the Russian Booker Prize and the Big Book Prize, the latter the most prestigious in Russia.

DIANE NEMEC IGNASHEV is Class of 1941 Professor of Russian and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College in Minnesota and the translator of No Love without Poetry: The Memoirs of Marina Tsvetaeva's Daughter by Ariadna Efron (Northwestern, 2009) and Paranoia by Victor Martinovich (Northwestern, 2013).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780805211320
ISBN 10	0805211322
Title	The Funeral Party
Author	Ludmila Ulitskaya
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Schocken Books
Year published	2002-01-15
Number of pages	160
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.