ELKOST International literary agency - Ulitskaya's Daniel Stein, Interpreter in Freiburg theater, Germany

Ludmila Ulitskaya's award-winning Daniel Stein, Interpreter novel was staged in Germany by Freiburg Theater as DANIEL STEIN (director Thomas Krupa, script Heike Müller-Merten).

Schauspiel nach dem Roman von Ljudmila Ulitzkaja in einer Fassung von Heike Müller-Merten

In den 50ern bricht ein zutiefst verstörter junger Mann von Polen auf, um in Israel eine Kirche nach urchristlichem Vorbild zu errichten und darin die weltanschaulichen, religiösen und politischen Gräben des blutigen Jahrhunderts zu überbrücken. Daniel Stein nennt die russische Autorin Ulitzkaja den Helden ihres Romans, in dem sie wesentliche Stationen des Lebensweges des Juden Oswald Rufeisen abbildet. Er floh als Halbwüchsiger vor den deutschen Besatzern, seine Deutschkenntnisse ermöglichten Tarnung und neue Identität. Gezwungenermaßen arbeitete er für die Gestapo. Er rettete das Leben hunderter Juden und Kommunisten und überlebte selbst drei Todesurteile. Er haderte mit Gott und gab sich doch wieder in seine Hände, konvertierte zum christlichen Glauben. Nach Partisanenkrieg gegen die Deutschen, Bekanntschaft mit dem stalinistischen NKWD und dem Antisemitismus im Nachkriegspolen gilt seine Hoffnung dem Staat Israel. »Bruder Daniel« wird in den Beschreibungen jener lebendig, die seinen Lebensweg zwischen Russland, Boston und Haifa kreuzten. Der Romanheld Daniel Stein kommt bei einem mysteriösen Unfall ums Leben.

Baize-Covered Table with Decanter, a novel by Vladimir Makanin (1993)

Rights sold: China - LITZIAN, France - GALLIMARD, AWorld English - Readers International,

Winner of the 1993 Russian Booker Award

Baize-Covered Table with Decanter describes one man's psychological torture as he faces an impending visit to be interrogated at the Table for a perceived, minor infraction. Makanin describes in some detail each character present at the Table, their purpose, techniques, and psychology. He also descibes in flashbacks the physical torture of suspects in Soviet days past and the mental torture of some as they are forcibly drugged in state mental hospitals. The book contains a few sections with an adult material not appropriate for minors; one scene in particular describes the sexual abuse of a corpse and is really quite disturbing.

Makanin does a good job describing the moral corruption of Russian/Soviet society. Neighbor is turned...

Chekhov's Poetics (1971), a book of literary studies by Alexander Chudakov

Rights sold: World English rights - Ardis (reverted)

Originally published in Moscow in 1971, Chekhov's Poetics remains the best single-volume study devoted to Chekhov. In fact, anyone who attempts to stage or study Chekhov seriously must consult Cudakov—and the sooner the better.

Tightly and lucidly written, this relatively slender volume constitutes a gold mine of important facts, judicious commentaries, and sober judgments about Chekhov’s oeuvre—all substantiated by prodigious citations form the writer's work. Although demonstrating an impressive mastery of Russian and Western Chekhov scholarship, and occasionally quoting Chekhov’s letters, Chudakov depends exclusively on the stories and plays themselves to advance his persuasive arguments. We have here a close reading of Chekhov, meticulous in its detail but always cognizant of the larger issues which Chekhov’s complex, often elusive writing raises. The book is divided into two parts of almost equal length and moves from structure to idea in Chekhov. Part...

Ulitskaya's Daniel Stein, Interpreter in Freiburg theater, Germany

Featured titles

Baize-Covered Table with Decanter, a novel by Vladimir Makanin (1993)

Chekhov's Poetics (1971), a book of literary studies by Alexander Chudakov