“If you want to get inside the head of modern, young Russia, read Filipenko.”-SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH (Nobel Prize winner, 2015)
A heart-wrenching novel exploring both personal and collective memory spanning Russian history from Stalin's terror to the present day.
Tatiana Alexeyevna is 90 years old and she’s losing her memory. To find her way in her Soviet-era apartment block, she resorts to painting red crosses on the doors leading back to her apartment. But she still remembers the past in vivid detail.
Alexander, a young man whose life has been brutally torn in two, would like nothing better than to forget the tragic events that have brought him to Minsk. When he moves into the flat next door to Tatiana’s, he’s cornered by the loquacious old lady. Reluctant at first, he’s soon drawn into Tatiana’s life story – one told urgently, before her memories of the Russian 20th century and its horrors are wiped out.
The two forge an unlikely friendship, a pact against forgetting giving rise to a new sense of hope in the future. Deeply moving, with flashes of humour, Red Crosses is a shining narrative in the tradition of the great Russian novel.
Review
“I enjoyed the book. I suppose the most interesting thing about it, for me, was to hear the voice of a young writer, from a generation who barely knew the Soviet times, and to see how he grapples with the subject.” - LA Review of Books
“Sasha Filipenko expertly links past and present, building a bridge between intimacy and otherness.” - Kurier (Vienna) Published On: 2018-01-01
“A tour de force. A book full of sound and fury, but also greatness and gentleness.” - Le Figaro littéraire
“The urgency and misery of Tatiana’s story collides with the apathy of Alexander’s generation towards the past. The result is moving and profound.” - The Times
“The tender story of a 90-year-old woman recalling the horrors she and her fellow Soviets have endured.” - The Independent
“Tatiana Alexeyevna has had a long, hard life. So perhaps it’s just as well she’s losing her memory to Alzheimer’s. Fortunately we can discover her story of the hardships of twentieth century Russia before she goes. Torn from her young daughter and sent to the Gulag, it’s a painful account of state terror, but an important one.” - Annetology
"A moving meditation on memory, forgetfulness, and the thirst for connection." - Oprah Daily
“Red Crosses’ high point answers the question as to why those who suffer endure to the end. Like the red crosses strewn across the novel, memory is more a symbol than a set of facts.” - PopMatters
“As one would expect Red Crosses isn’t always a comfortable read. It lays bare the inhumanity with which innocent people were treated and how families were divided and destroyed. Knowing that decades later, in 2021, in some countries people are still being imprisoned for their beliefs makes for an harrowing realisation.” - West Words Reviews
“The main thrust of the novel is to show the horrors of the Soviet system.” - The Modern Novel
“A perfectly balanced work.” - Literary Flits
Review
“If you want to get inside the head of modern, young Russia, read Filipenko.” - Svetlana Alexievich (Nobel Prize winner, 2015)
About the Author
Sasha Filipenko was born in Minsk. After abandoning his classical music training, he studied literature and worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A passionate football fan, he lives with his family in St. Petersburg.
Brian James Baer is Professor of Russian and Translation Studies at Kent State University and Leading Researcher at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow. He is author of Translation and the Making of Modern Russian Literature and founding editor of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies. His translations include Juri Lotman’s Unpredictable Workings of Culture and Russian Short Stories in the Penguin Parallel Texts.
After completing her MA in Russian Translation in 2017, Ellen Vayner translated short stories, magazine interviews, and a conceptual artistic project. Sacred Darkness (Europa, 2019) was her first work for a major publishing house. Ellen lives in Shaker Heights with her husband and an Airedale Terrier.
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