In A Door Behind a Door, Yelena Moskovich continues her exploration of the post-Soviet diaspora, through a mesmeric blending of past and present, desire and violence
Yelena Moskovich Books
Yelena Moskovich delves into the complex interplay of identity, memory, and cultural displacement through her literary works. Her style, marked by raw honesty and poetic imagery, draws readers into the depths of the human psyche. Moskovich's writing often features characters grappling with a sense of alienation as they navigate their place in the world, frequently exploring themes of emigration and the search for belonging. Her work serves as a powerful meditation on the human experience and the universal quest for connection.
Virtuoso
- 272 pages
- 10 hours of reading
"A hint of Lynch, a touch of Ferrante, the cruel absurdity of Antonin Artaud, the fierce candour of Anaïs Nin, the stylish languor of a Lana del Rey song." --The Guardian As Communism begins to crumble in Prague in the 1980s, Jana's unremarkable life becomes all at once remarkable when a precocious young girl named Zorka moves into the apartment building with her mother and sick father. With Zorka's signature two-finger salute and abrasive wit, she brings flair to the girls' days despite her mother's protestations to not "be weird." But after scorching her mother's prized fur coat and stealing from a nefarious teacher, Zorka suddenly disappears. Meanwhile in Paris, Aimée de Saint-Pé married young to an older woman, Dominique, an actress whose star has crested and is in decline. A quixotic journey of self-discovery, Virtuoso follows Zorka as she comes of age in Prague, Wisconsin, and then Boston, amidst a backdrop of clothing logos, MTV, computer coders, and other outcast youth. But it isn't till a Parisian conference hall brimming with orthopedic mattresses and therapeutic appendages when Jana first encounters Aimée, their fates steering them both to a cryptic bar on the Rue de Prague, and, perhaps, to Zorka. With a distinctive prose flair and spellbinding vision, Virtuoso is a story of love, loss, and self-discovery that heralds Yelena Moskovich as a brilliant and one-of-a-kind visionary.