ELKOST International literary agency - Jerusalem International Book Festival 21/02/2007

Jerusalem International Book Festival: The evening discussion between Ludmila Ulitskaya and Meir Shalev will take place on Wednesday, February 21st at Beit AVI CHAI (a newly built community and activity center in the center of Jerusalem), to begin at 19:30.

Featured titles

Kira Georgievna, a novel by Victor Nekrasov (1961)

Published by: Croatia - Svjetlost (1963); Czech Republic - SNKLU (1962); Denmark - Kbh (1962); France - Seuil (1963); Germany - Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (1962), Ullstein Verlag (1981); Italy - Einaudi (1961); Israel - משרד הבטחון; Poland - Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy (1961); Slovakia - Slovenské vydavatelstvo krásnej literatúry (1962); Spain - Editorial Mateu (1962); UK - Cresset Press (1963), Cambridge University Press (1967); USA - Pantheon Books (1962),

Set in 1960's Russia, the novel tells the story of Kira Georgievna, a middle-aged successful sculptor, passively married to Nikolai, a much older painter. Each completely engrossed in their work, they become entirely emotionally detached from one another. At this point we meet Vadim, the man Kira was engaged to marry twenty-five years earlier. Their plan was destroyed upon Vadim's arrest by the Solviet police, which earned him a twenty-year sentence in Siberia. Now married with a five-year-old son, his curiosity leads him back to Kira. They fall in love all over again and plan to start a new life, but complications naturally arise when they realize the sacrifices that must be made in order to be together.

Kukotsky Case, a novel by Ludmila Ulitskaya (2001)

Penne Prize (2006, Italy)
Russian Booker Prize 2001

Right sold to: Albania - OMSCA, Bulgaria - COLIBRI, China - LIJIANG PUBLISHING, Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House, Czech Repuiblic - PASEKA, Denmark - HOVEDLAND OG BOGAN, Estonia - TANAPAEV, France - GALLIMARD, Georgia - AZRI, Germany - VOLK UND WELT (LUCHTENHAND LUEBBE), Japan - GUNZOSHA, Korea - DULNYOUK PUBLISHING, The Netherlands - DE GEUS, Hungary - EUROPE, Italy - FRASSINELLI, Lithuania - JOTEMA, Macedonia - ANTOLOG, Norway - BAZAR, Poland - PHILIP WILSON, Portugal - RELÓGIO D’ÁGUA, Romania - HUMANITAS FICTION, Russia - EKSMO, AST, Serbia - Filip Višnjić, ARHIPELAG, USA - Northwestern University Press

Big part of her life Ulitskaya has been closely connected to biological schience, though a twist of life took her in another direction. Her years devoted to studying genetics and medicine have made a considerable impact on her literary style. This was where she realized the similarities between the doctor and the priest, and this was where the difficult questions emerged: where do the limits of human freedom lie and what are the limits between health and sickness, between life and death?

The novel Kukotsky Case deals with important themes such as motherhood, illness and marriage. The hero, a gynecologist, is ready to do everything possible to protect yet unborn life, but he also feels it his duty to defend every woman’s right to abortion, thus saving thousands of women from death as a result of backstreet abortions. This was a burning issue in the mid-twentieth century and it remains just as relevant today in the new millennium.