Join us on Saturday, November 3 for a conversation with Alisa Ganieva and Ian Dreiblatt at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn, NY!
Alisa Ganieva grew up in Makhachkala, Dagestan and studied at the renowned Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. After working as a literary critic, she published her fiction debut, the novella Salam, Dalgat!, under a male pseudonym. Upon receiving the prestigious Debut Prize in 2009, Ganieva finally revealed her true identity at the awards ceremony. In 2012, Ganieva participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa. Her debut novel, The Mountain and the Wall, was shortlisted for all of Russia's major literary awards and has been translated into seven languages, marking the first novel ever published in English by a Dagestani author. In June 2015, Ganieva was listed by The Guardian as one of the most influential young people living in Moscow. Bride and Groom is her second novel, and was shortlisted for the 2015 Russian Booker Prize upon its publication in Russia. Ganieva currently lives in Moscow, where she works as a journalist, critic, and teacher.
Poet and translator Ian Dreiblatt lives in Brooklyn, where he is is the New York manager for Dalkey Archive Press. His translation of Nikolai Leskov’s The Enchanted Wanderer was published by Melville House in 2012.
ABOUT HER BOOKS
From one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, comes Bride and Groom, the tumultuous love story of two young city-dwellers who meet when they return home to their families in rural Dagestan. When traditional family expectations and increasing religious and cultural tension threaten to shatter their bond, Marat and Patya struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, while fate seems destined to keep them together until the very end.
This remarkable debut novel by a unique young Russian voice portrays the influence of political intolerance and religious violence in the lives of people forced to choose between evils. The Mountain and the Wall focuses on Shamil, a young local reporter in Makhachkala, and his reactions, or lack thereof, to rumors that the Russian government is building a wall to cut off the Muslim provinces of the Caucasus from the rest of Russia. As unrest spreads and the tension builds, Shamil’s life is turned upside down, and he can no longer afford to ignore the violence surrounding him. With a fine sense for mounting catastrophe, Ganieva tells the story of the decline of a society torn apart by its inherent extremes.