Nadezhda in the Dark
14 September 2023Imprint: Footnote Press
Synopsis
'Moskovich is the master of silky, slinky sentences that run in unexpected directions' The Telegraph
'Sexy and readable . . . a celebration of resilience and of myriad survivors' Times Literary Supplement
'One of the best fiction releases of 2023' Dazed Digital
A queer anthem for doomed youth by the author of Virtuoso and A Door Behind a Door
On the longest night of a Berlin winter two women sit side-by-side. Both fled the Soviet Union as children, one from Ukraine, and her girlfriend from Russia.
A thigh shifts, fingers fold in, a shoulder is lowered. Neither speak.
As silence weighs heavy between them, decades of Ukrainian and Russian history resurface, from Yiddish jokes, Kyiv's DIY queer parties and the hidden messages in Russian pop music, to resistance in Odessa, raids in Moscow clubs and the death of their friend.
As the requiem inside the narrator's head expands within the darkness of the room, she asks the all-important question: what does it mean to have hope?
'Nadezhda in the Dark is a marvel - a spellbinding work' LAUREN ELKIN
'Yelena Moskovich is a true original, a literary titan, an innovator' JENNI FAGAN
'Sexy and readable . . . a celebration of resilience and of myriad survivors' Times Literary Supplement
'One of the best fiction releases of 2023' Dazed Digital
A queer anthem for doomed youth by the author of Virtuoso and A Door Behind a Door
On the longest night of a Berlin winter two women sit side-by-side. Both fled the Soviet Union as children, one from Ukraine, and her girlfriend from Russia.
A thigh shifts, fingers fold in, a shoulder is lowered. Neither speak.
As silence weighs heavy between them, decades of Ukrainian and Russian history resurface, from Yiddish jokes, Kyiv's DIY queer parties and the hidden messages in Russian pop music, to resistance in Odessa, raids in Moscow clubs and the death of their friend.
As the requiem inside the narrator's head expands within the darkness of the room, she asks the all-important question: what does it mean to have hope?
'Nadezhda in the Dark is a marvel - a spellbinding work' LAUREN ELKIN
'Yelena Moskovich is a true original, a literary titan, an innovator' JENNI FAGAN
Details
14 September 2023192 pages
9781804440483Imprint: Footnote Press
Reviews
Sexy and readable [...] This is a story of one night, but you could equally describe it as a 182-page love letter; a celebration of resilience and of myriad survivors; a troubling history of LGBTQ+ communities in Eastern Europe; and a lament for lost homelands, and all the other losses that ensue [...] If you love the Beats, you may find yourself loving Yelena Moskovich's night in Berlin even moreTimes Literary Supplement
Moskovich is the master of silky, slinky sentences that run in unexpected directions . . . Fact and fiction intermingle, as storytelling becomes a means of making it through the night, and a way of processing a tumultuous historyThe Telegraph
Yelena Moskovich's new novel Nadezhda in the Dark might just be one of the best fiction releases of 2023Dazed Digital
Nadezhda in the Dark is a marvel - a spellbinding work of essayistic, poetic prose, urgent, never not surprising. Yelena Moskovich reminds us that the best novels are adventures of language and form, and acts of bearing witness to the fates of the tender body in the worldLauren Elkin