The publications of the University of the Basque Country Press introduce subjects of current interest corresponding to several fields of knowledge, textbooks and journals, hoping to reach beyond the university market to a wider readership.
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One morning, the midwife Maria Ivanovna Sidorkina wakes up to her downstairs neighbor’s cries that Maria’s cat Barsik has killed a man. After an investigation by the Soviet militsiya, the grotesque morning (which lacked any human victim, regardless) transitions smoothly into a similarly absurd birthday party for Maria’s mother that is attended by terrible guests, and during which the woman’s husband Vassily makes a joke that falls horribly flat. To mitigate his wife’s displeasure, Vassily promises to start studying Estonian using the local newspapers. Thus, a Stalinist periodical with a peculiar attitude towards reality becomes their Estonian textbook. In 1944, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia for a second time in fewer than five years. Vseviov, an historian, depicts the ways enigmatic Russia strengthened its foothold in the country and how life profoundly transformed. Complemented by extensive photographic illustrations, the novel paints a picture of people’s everyday lives in Tallinn over the course of two spring weeks in 1949, shortly after the end of World War II. Newspaper-reading and the reporting of current affairs in a way loyal to the regime are central topics throughout the book. The narrator of Autobiography is a precocious newborn who comments on the situation from his own unusual perspective. One major setting in the novel is the multinational hospital maternity ward, which brings together the stories of women born all across the Soviet Union who have relocated to Estonia. In the second week, the infant moves home to a room in a communal apartment in the city center, where the mother receives visitors with stories that are just as fascinating. The protagonist is born into a mixed Estonian- and Russian-Jewish family; the languages spoken at home also include German and French. This crossroads of cultures and conflicts doesn’t necessarily entail collisions alone, but also queer cultural intertwining and interpretations. The humorous parallel reality conjured up by the newspaper articles (which an alarming number of the Soviet-minded characters do not doubt in the very least) highlights, in fact, the grotesque that could be found in those terrifying years – an era of genuine fear. The reality of Stalinism in Soviet Estonia is woven into the author’s historically accurate yet exaggerated characters. Reviewers have called Vseviov’s Autobiography an historically and politically comedic work of reference. At the same time, it is a high-spirited parody of autobiographies. The tiny narrator discovers parallels with events that will occur later in life, relating episodes with roots that extend (sometimes mockingly, other times with dire seriousness) into these first two weeks. The nature of compulsory Soviet military service, for example, is revealed all in its unadulterated absurdity. Autobiography: The First Two Weeks stylistically resembles Ilf and Petrov’s The Twelve Chairs.
On the night of January 20th, Lena Manies, a twelfth-grade high school student, disappears. No one knows why, no one suspected anything, Lena gave no indication that something was wrong. During the following days, her disappearance will act as a catalyst for the relationships between her relatives, her friends and her acquaintances, as they all begin to wonder about their own role in Lena’s disappearance, but above all about the role of others. Nine people, nine narrators try to justify, to conceal, to blame. And as time passes, their relationships are put to the test and either adapt or collapse.
It was summer when Walice, along with wandering performers and the fairground, pitched up on a plot on the edge of our town. And there was a carousel at the fairground that we were dreaming of even while being awake.Walice had nothing – but we only found out about this much later.What we knew was that she was different and, as the grown-ups have told us, we should be afraid of her and avoid her. Therefore, they gave us a scarf to put it on her so that she stood out. Up until the night we found out she could do magic… This is a story on prejudice, racism, and the Romani Holocaust. On the narrow-mindedness and harshness of adults, but, also, on the intrinsic empathy of children.Mostly, it is the story of a true and generous friendship; the story of a magical summer…
Le mythique Métal Hurlant est de retour avec une nouvelle formule, alternant les numéros originaux avec les numéros vintage Chaque année, retrouvez quatre nouveaux numéros consacrés à la science-fiction : deux numéros dédiés à la création, avec des histoires et articles inédits, et deux numéros consacrés à la « première génération Métal ». La rédaction travaille sous la direction de Jerry Frissen et sous l’égide d’un ange tutélaire bien particulier : l’inimitable Jean-Pierre Dionnet, l’un des pères fondateurs de la revue.
