An evening with Guzel Yakhina and Lisa Hayden

Chance For Life invites you to an evening with Guzel Yakhina, winner of Russia’s Big Book Award and shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize.

Guzel Yakhina, one of Russia’s most exciting new talents, her multi-award winning novel inspired by the memories of her grandmother’s exile to Siberia – along with special guest — Lisa Hayden, literary translator, literary blogger, winner of the 2016 Read Russia Prize, member of the Literary Academy, the jury for Russia’s Big Book Award.

Set amid the spiraling political terror of the 1930s Soviet Union, a young Tartar woman is sentenced to a prison sentence in Siberia, where she learns the necessity of forging a new identity in order to survive. A modern work of lagernaya literature (gulag literature), Guzel Yakhina’s novel has been a bestseller in Russia, revealing a continuing interest in the topic of Soviet repression.

Guzel and Lisa will be in conversation with cultural historian and BBC broadcaster Alexander Kan about the novel, and the ongoing debate over accepting or disowning this aspect of Russia’s past.

This event is organised with the support of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Centre and the Institute for Literary Translation as part of the Read Russian programme at London Book Fair 2019.

All the raised money will be transferred to charitable foundation Life Line in Russia. You can also donate here.

The event will be held in English.