Heaven and Hell
Quotes from the Book
You taught me to speak. You taught me to read. You taught me to write. You gave me language. The language I use today to write about you.
When you have nothing to feed your children, loving them is hard, too.
Grief is a complicated thing. It’s impossible without the presence of others, and death is above all a communal event.
To spend a year waiting for death is to await sorrow and relief simultaneously.
De nem ez a lényeg. Én vagyok a lényeg. Nem szeretett engem. Én pedig imádtam őt, görcsösen imádtam őt. De idővel ez az imádat csendes, mélyen gyökerező haraggá és fájdalommá alakult. (...) Én pedig csak figyeltem őt, mint akit megbabonáztak, míg belül tomboltam, égtem, szenvedtem a féltékenységtől. Az enyém volt, mégsem volt az enyém.
Meg kellett szoknom, hogy át kell gondolni, mit árulok el a partneremről, hogy hogyan viselkedem nyilvánosan. Nem azért, mert szégyenlős voltam – feszengtem persze egy kicsit, de nem próbáltam titkolni a kapcsolataimat –, csak hát az akkori barátnőm, Kátya teljesen leszbofób volt. A barátai közül szinte senki sem tudott a kapcsolatunkról. (...) Követtem őt, mint egy kiskutya, a tenyeremen akartam őt hordozni, összevissza akartam őt csókolgatni, kényeztetni akartam minden egyes pillanatban. Ő meg semmibe vett engem.
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About Oksana Vasyakina
About the book
For fans of Maggie Nelson and Eileen Myles, the lyrical and deeply moving story of a young queer woman’s journey across Russia to inter her mother’s ashes and to understand her sexuality, femininity, and grief
From one of Russia’s most exciting new voices, Wound follows a young lesbian poet on a journey from Moscow to her hometown in Siberia, where she has promised to bury her mother’s ashes. Woven throughout this fascinating travel narrative are harrowing and at times sublime memories of her childhood and her sexual and artistic awakening. As she carefully documents her grief and interrogates her past, the narrator of Oksana Vasyakina’s autobiographical novel meditates on queerness, death, and love and finds new words for understanding her relationship with her mother, her country, her sexuality, and her identity as an artist.
A sensual, whip-smart account of the complicated dynam
Book details
- First published
- 2021
- Author
- Oksana Vasyakina
- Genre
- Fiction
- Goodreads rating
- 3.82 (2k ratings)
The buzz
- The New York TimesReview in The New York Timesprofessional review (via Book Marks)
- Publishers WeeklyReview in Publishers Weeklyprofessional review (via Book Marks)
- ForewordreviewsReview in Forewordreviewsprofessional review (via Book Marks)
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