Writers

Ludmila Petrushevskaya

Born: 1938

Quick Study: Ludmila Petrushevskaya is one of contemporary Russia’s most distinctive writers: she is especially renowned as a writer of dark and creepy short stories, a dramatist who loves absurdity, and a cabaret performer.

The Petrushevskaya File: Though Ludmila Petrushevskaya wrote during the Soviet era, her work, which often looks at seamy and uncomfortable aspects of life, was generally banned, remaining largely unpublished until perestroika, when her collection Immortal Love came out in the late 1980s. Her novella The Time: Night was a finalist for the 1992 Russian Booker Prize and her work has gone on to be translated into more than two dozen languages: the English-language collection There Once Lived a Woman who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby hit the New York Times bestseller list in late 2009. Petrushevskaya’s plays have been staged in several of Moscow’s best-known theaters… and in venues around the world.

Psssst………: Petrushevskaya, who rewrites song lyrics for her own performances, is quoted in Viv Groskop’s article in FT Magazine (January 14, 2011) saying she enjoys Susan Boyle, “I watch her on YouTube every night. Her story is a real fairy tale.”… Petrushevskaya also paints… She was the inspiration for the heron in Yuri Norshtein’s animated film The Crane and the Heron… Petrushevskaya is known for wearing wide-brimmed hats…

Petrushevskaya’s Places: Born in Moscow… studied journalism at Moscow State University…

The Word on Petrushevskaya: English translations of Petrushevskaya’s work have been widely reviewed by diverse publications, including Kirkus Reviews, which called the Immortal Love collection “the work of a major talent, quite possibly the best Russian writer of her generation,” and The New York Times Book Review, where Ken Kalfus wrote of The Time: Night, “Described in a self-pitying, darkly humorous soliloquy, Anna’s [the narrator’s] descent into the lower depths will remind American readers of our own country’s cycles of poverty, especially the linkage of women’s declining fortunes with untimely pregnancies.”

Petrushevskaya on Petrushevskaya: Petrushevskaya has said that she learned to read in secret, when her family was evacuated to Kuibyshev during World War 2. “The adults discovered this by chance, when I started quoting pieces of A Short Course of the History [of the All-Union Communist Party/bolsheviks] that I’d learned by heart.” Petrushevskaya’s 2017 autobiography, The Girl from the Metropol Hotel, translated by Anna Summers, offers many tales from her childhood and mentions listening to her grandmother recite classics, particularly Gogol.

On Writing: In Viv Groskop’s 2011 FT Magazine article, Petrushevskaya says she looks at reality for material to write about, “I think of myself as a documentary writer, collecting documents about people’s lives and reworking them.”

Petrushevskaya Recommends: In a piece on the Russian Snob site, Petrushevskaya is said to like the writings of Marcel Proust and Georgian philosopher Merab Mamardashvili.

Photo credit: David Shankbone, Creative Commons


More on Petrushevskaya

Selected Awards & Nominations:

  • Kidnapped. The History of Crimes, NOSE Award (critics’ choice award), 2019
  • World Fantasy Award, winner (tie), collection (There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales), 2010
  • Number One, or In the Gardens of Other Possibilities -- Russian Booker finalist, 2004
  • State Prize of the Russian Federation, 2003
  • Triumph Award for lifetime achievement, 2002
  • The Time: Night – Russian Booker finalist, 1992

 

Translations:

  • The Girl from the Metropol Hotel (Penguin, 2017, tr. Anna Summers)
  • There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, and He Hanged Himself (Penguin, 2013, tr. Anna Summers)
  • Through the Wall (Penguin, 2011, tr. Anna Summers and Keith Gessen)
  • There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby (Penguin, 2009, tr. Keith Gessen and Anna Summers)
  • Cinzano (Nick Hern Books, 2006, reissue, tr. Stephen Mulrine)
  • The Time: Night (Northwestern University Press, 2000, tr. Sally Laird)
  • Immortal Love (Pantheon, 1996, tr. Sally Laird)

Fiction and nonfiction works in anthologies and periodicals include: “Joe Juan” in Life Stories (Russian Information Services, 2009, tr. Lise Brody), “Waterloo Bridge” and “The House with a Fountain” in Nine of Russia’s Foremost Women Writers (Glas, 2003, tr. Sally Laird and Ellen Pinchuk, respectively), “Ludmila” in A Will & a Way (Glas, 1996, tr. Jane Taubman), “Our Crowd” in Glasnost: An Anthology of Russian Literature Under Gorbachev (Ardis, 1990, tr. Helena Goscilo), and “The Violin” and “Mania” in Balancing Acts: Contemporary Stories by Russian Women (Laurel, 1989, tr. Marina Astman and Helen Goscilo, respectively), as well as pieces in such publications as The Paris Review, Harper’s, and The New Yorker.

Other Selected Titles:

  • Kidnapped, The History of Crimes (Нас украли. История преступлений), 2017, novel
  • Number One, or In the Gardens of Other Possibilities (Номер один, или В садах других возможностей), 2004, novel

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