The Soviet Union banned many of Vasil Bykau's novels, which often focus on the agonizing moral dilemmas faced by young officers during the horrors of war. Considered the best modern Belarusan writer and the last Eastern European literary dissident, Bykau (1924-2003) is referred to as the 'conscience of a nation' for leading an intellectual crusade against Lukasenka's totalitarian regime.In exile from Belarus for several years, he was given refuge by Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize by Havel, Czeslaw Milosz, and PEN. In the first English biography of his life and work, Zina Gimpelevich describes the conditions under which Bykau lived in the former USSR and provides a literary and political history of Belarus from 1918-2003. Based on interviews that she conducted with Bykau, she illuminates his life of as an artist and a defender of human rights. She also provides a literary criticism of Bykau's work, including The Ordeal and Pack of Wolves, the psychological realism of his early novels, and his interest in existentialism.
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"I hold Vasil Bykau in high regard as an opponent to totalitarian regimes in Belarus. During our encounter he never lost hope for positive changes in his country's future. I feel a certain correlation between our destinies and I regret that he was not lucky enough to experience changes, unlike those of us in Czechoslovakia, Poland, or Hungary." Vaclav Havel "This timely biography is essential reading." Arnold McMillin, professor of Russian Literature, University College London
About the Author
Zina J. Gimpelevich is associate professor, Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Waterloo.
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