Aleksandr Skorobogatov's Blog
October 3, 2025
Is Russian Gothic misogynistic?
I wrote ‘Russian Gothic’ in part about my beloved mother, whose precious life was destroyed by my alcoholic father — and about her countless sisters in pain across the former Soviet Union: women who suffered silently under all forms of domestic abuse, because they couldn’t find help back then — and still can’t today.
I’m writing about a victim of daily violence.
If what you feel is pain or outrage at Vera’s fate — good. That means you’re compassionate. That means you care.
But don’t turn that outrage against me or my book.
Neither I nor my book are misogynistic.
I’m showing you a dark and painful part of our history — one you need to face.
I’m writing about a victim of daily violence.
If what you feel is pain or outrage at Vera’s fate — good. That means you’re compassionate. That means you care.
But don’t turn that outrage against me or my book.
Neither I nor my book are misogynistic.
I’m showing you a dark and painful part of our history — one you need to face.
October 19, 2023
RUSSIAN GOTHIC by Aleksandr Skorobogatov in quotes
PRAISE FOR RUSSIAN GOTHIC (SERGEANT BERTRAND and VERA in some translations) BY ALEKSANDR SKOROBOGATOV
AWARDS:
Yunost: ‘Best Novel of the Year’, Russia, 1991
Overall Winner of the XXXIVth International Literary Award ‘Città di Penne’, Italy, 2012
Medal of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, Italy, 2012
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Part-Gogol, part-Nabokov and thoroughly magnificent… Russian Gothic has been heralded as an early masterpiece of post-Soviet literature — a wonderfully, startlingly disconcerting read.
— Francesca Peacock, The Telegraph (5 out of 5 stars)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Russian Gothic is an exceptionally fascinating and accomplished novel that skillfully intertwines reality, dream, delirium and madness.
— Marnix Verplanke, Knack Focus (5 out of 5 stars)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
— Internazionale (5 out of 5 stars)
The novel elegantly recalls the great poets of delirium and madness that continue to be the reason people around the world turn to Russian literature: Dostoyevsky, Gogol. (…) Russian Gothic is a powerfully airless, demented little book whose fever proceeds with unbearable lucidity, both of prose and of mind… A lambent portrait of madness.
— Boris Fishman, The New York Times
Readers won’t be able to turn away.
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A haunting masterpiece of jealousy and rage.
— Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
Russian Gothic examines the devastating toll of PTSD, toxic jealousy, grief and misogyny. Aleksandr Skorobogatov is the author of five acclaimed novels but Russian Gothic, originally published in Europe in 1991, is the first of his books to be translated into English. It’s been hailed as a masterpiece of post-Soviet literature.
—Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Daily News
A dark masterpiece.
— Femina Magazine
A grand Russian novel where the hero is a husband tortured by the demons of jealousy. With this beautiful tragic novel, Skorobogatov has carved a place for himself in the grand Russian tradition.
— Astrid de Larminat, Le Figaro
A Russian Edgar Allan Poe story, written in a sublime and breathtaking way.
— Lektuurgids
Russian Gothic joins the tradition of tales told from the perspective of unhinged narrators, from Gogol’s Diary of a Madman (1835) to Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991) (…) All the more chilling in light of the conscripts being sent en masse to fight in Ukraine (…) Skorobogatov’s complex psychological portrait is riveting.
— Mia Levitin, The Sunday Times
A short and grand novel about an obsessive jealousy which leads to madness, in the tradition of Gogol’s Diary of a Madman.
— Jean-Claude Vantroyen, Le Soir
This sinister, indeed sulphurous, novella by a Belarus-born author was first published in Russian in 1991, and won major awards. Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse’s English translation, as creepily compelling as the book deserves, appears long after the contemporary hook that Aleksandr Skorobogatov embeds in his tale has lost its topicality. Recent events, however, make this fable of obsession, madness and violence timelier than ever. (…) Admirers of Gogol, Dostoevsky and other literary conjurers of infernal powers, both psychological and social, will find plenty to recognise. (…) The anti-hero’s demonic possession, and the heroine’s long-suffering virtue, may unfold against a broad canvas of Russian writing, with its recurrent spiritual dramas, yet Nikolai also suffers alcohol-enhanced PTSD, bequeathed by the imperial debacles of the moribund Soviet state. His hallucinations have a history. And this English version arrives just as Putin’s war on Ukraine creates thousands more traumatised Nikolais. In his sermon from hell, Bertrand refers to life as ‘a never-ending battle in a never-ending war’. If so, then the Kremlin now hosts the most faithful devil’s disciple of them all.
— Boyd Tonkin, The Spectator
A pulse-pounding modern classic.
— Bent Van Looy, Culture Club Magazine
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A thrilling novel about guilt and atonement.
— Peter Swanborn, De Volkskrant (4 out of 5 stars)
The black, droll humour; the hyperbolic expression, both in dialogue and the author’s prose; the bold assumption that is the Russian writer’s job to take on profound truths about humanity’s successes and failures; the seamless switches from short no-nonsense exposition to grand sighs and world-weary cries. The proliferation of melodramatic exclamation marks! If this is the territory in which your own dark soul thrives (mine certainly does), Russian Gothic will be Prokofiev to your ears.
— Jane Graham, Big Issue
It has been many years since such an original work found its way from Russia to this country. Skorobogatov writes exceptionally well. I read Russian Gothic in one sitting, and after I had finished it, it continued to hold me in its grip. It is an impressive debut that whets the reader’s appetite for more to come.
— Helen Saelman, NRC Handelsblad
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Skorobogatov tells his tale from within the madness of his main character. What is truth and what is only taking place in the head of Nikolaj? The short, feverish chapters carry you away. Nikolaj is caught up in his jealousy and the reader is caught with him.
— i.a. Haarlems Dagblad, Leidsch Dagblad and Noordhollands Dagblad (4 out of 5 stars)
Skorobogatov intertwines sexual obsession, jealousy, fear, aggression and the drive to abandonment with one another, in a work that has strong undertones of the French writer-philosopher Georges Bataille; a dark book that plays with the tempting and at the same time repulsive connection between the erotic and violence, love and hate, reality and nightmare.
— Trouw
Russian Gothic is a breathtaking book, written in the sober prose that is necessary for writing a tale about the logic of madness.
— Dagblad van het Noorden
Timeless and worth all attention.
— Nederlands Dagbad
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s as though an actor has stealthily entered your mind and mesmerizes you with his tale in a husky, smoke-filled voice. That’s how Russian Gothic reads, a surreal novel that strikes a balance between J. Bernlef and David Lynch.
— Karel-Willem Delrue, Cutting Edge (4 out of 5 stars)
Russian Gothic is a sober, subtle and at the same time raw and overwhelming novel that deserves to be read.
— MappaLibri
With Russian Gothic, Skorobogatov endeavors to write a book that could have been penned two hundred years ago and yet still remain relevant today. It’s a timeless work, richly imbued with the ailments of the Russian soul — alcoholism, violence, passions, faith, and patience — crafted in a mesmerizing way.
— Stavros Striligas, Popaganda
With haunting prose and a gripping gaze that skillfully avoids pity or melodrama, the Belarusian author crafts a terrifying atmosphere of suffocation. Aleksandr Skorobogatov combines nuanced discretion with rich literary skill to shape the swirling forces of a paranoid spirit. Literary giants such as Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, Leonid Andreyev would surely take pride in the legacy they have influenced.
— Nikos Kourmoulis, Book Press
You do not emerge unscathed from Aleksandr Skorobogatov’s story. This concise novel resonates, as Kafka might have phrased it, like an ax cleaving the frozen sea within us. In Russian Gothic, Skorobogatov introduces a kind of literature rarely encountered among contemporary authors, a distinction that has rightfully earned him acclaim. While exploring a familiar theme, he elevates it through a spare narrative style teeming with succinct descriptions, a penetrating gaze, razor-sharp dialogues, and an enigmatic ambiance. Comparisons to Poe are not unfounded, as certain elements draw parallels to the American author, yet Skorobogatov maintains a distinctive, purely Russian essence.
—Vicky Vasilatou-Sarri, Ο ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΗΣ
Skorobogatov is considered as one of the most interesting authors of post-communist Russia.
— De Standaard der Letteren
Aleksandr Skorobogatov is being praised in Moscow and in the West as an absolute discovery.
— De Morgen
Every now and then, albeit very rarely indeed, a novel or story by a totally unknown author gives a glimpse of unexpected genius. The surprise is so great, in fact, that you are compelled to read the work a second time, but now with the clear insight of the initiate. The novel Russian Gothic by the Russian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov is one of these rare, truly impressive achievements.
— Gazet van Antwerpen
Unmatched, timeless mastery.
— Athens Voice
In the first place, Skorobogatov wrote a beautiful, almost classic study.
— Knack
While reading Russian Gothic I sometimes had to think back to Nikolay Gogol’s Diary of a Madman. In both, the story goes beautifully, deliriously off the rails, with or without religious connotations. So, Gogol and perhaps, in some of the nicely laconic and cruel details, a hint of Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird.
— De Morgen
Astounding literary debut.
— Gonzo Circus
The previous year, Russian Gothic received an important award, and the author became a rising star at the literary firmament.
— Gazet van Antwerpen
When you start reading Russian Gothic you understand why it won this prize. It is a fascinating story that immediately grabs you by the throat (and quite honestly, by other parts of your anatomy) and doesn’t let go. The style is very laconic and pointillistic without the clutter of unnecessary details. As in minimalist music, the recurring elements heighten the reader’s apprehension. And this makes the story extremely forceful. The author manages to captivate his reader with a story that is both malicious and voyeuristic. The reader almost becomes an accessory to the fatal ending.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
What he shows with this story is that decades of censorship and social-realistic literature are not sufficient to definitively exterminate individual strength of mind. There is still hope for the Russians.
— Algemeen Dagblad
A novel that reads as a terrifying vision and mystifies you as a David Lynch film. Great literature, great author.
— Focus Knack
This is absolutely unique in Russian literature in general, and especially so in recent years.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
This story would make an incredible film with an atmosphere worthy of a Polanski.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
This novel is in all respects one of the most astonishing books I have read.
— Gierik/NVT
Of Russian origin, Aleksandr Skorobogatov has written what could become a modern Horla.
— Page des Libraires
When we talk about wife abuse, we think straightaway about Afghanistan, Thailand, Somalia. But what about Russian women? Just Google “Russian women” and you will find that, like their Asian or African sisters, women from Russia and Eastern European countries in general are considered as docile objects to be manipulated. In his first novel translated into French, Aleksandr Skorobogatov describes the everyday life of Vera, who is married to a pathologically jealous alcoholic. The author describes the destructive feeling reinforced by alcohol with heart rending realism and brutality. (…) But behind this story of jealousy and a submissive woman lurks a critique of the Soviet era. (…) A rather detached novel, with poignant characters, that shows a small part of the Soviet reality rarely mentioned.
— Le Nouvel Observateur
Aleksandr Skorobogatov has set up a subtle immersion in his hero’s deliriums, leaving the reader a few short breaths of air from time to time. Just to touch the fragile frontier between the reality that escapes Nikolai and the images that he creates that shout out they are true. The narrative goes through the hero’s and the narrator’s hands, muddling their voices.
— Matricule des Anges
You read Skorobogatov in one befuddled breath.
— Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift
In short, Mr. Skorobogatov is a stellar talent, one to keep an eye out for.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
It would be a lot easier if his name was simply Smith or so, but this is unfortunately not the case: Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a name to remember.
— Gazet van Antwerpen
AWARDS:
Yunost: ‘Best Novel of the Year’, Russia, 1991
Overall Winner of the XXXIVth International Literary Award ‘Città di Penne’, Italy, 2012
Medal of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, Italy, 2012
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Part-Gogol, part-Nabokov and thoroughly magnificent… Russian Gothic has been heralded as an early masterpiece of post-Soviet literature — a wonderfully, startlingly disconcerting read.
— Francesca Peacock, The Telegraph (5 out of 5 stars)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Russian Gothic is an exceptionally fascinating and accomplished novel that skillfully intertwines reality, dream, delirium and madness.
— Marnix Verplanke, Knack Focus (5 out of 5 stars)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
— Internazionale (5 out of 5 stars)
The novel elegantly recalls the great poets of delirium and madness that continue to be the reason people around the world turn to Russian literature: Dostoyevsky, Gogol. (…) Russian Gothic is a powerfully airless, demented little book whose fever proceeds with unbearable lucidity, both of prose and of mind… A lambent portrait of madness.
— Boris Fishman, The New York Times
Readers won’t be able to turn away.
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A haunting masterpiece of jealousy and rage.
— Molly Odintz, CrimeReads
Russian Gothic examines the devastating toll of PTSD, toxic jealousy, grief and misogyny. Aleksandr Skorobogatov is the author of five acclaimed novels but Russian Gothic, originally published in Europe in 1991, is the first of his books to be translated into English. It’s been hailed as a masterpiece of post-Soviet literature.
—Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Daily News
A dark masterpiece.
— Femina Magazine
A grand Russian novel where the hero is a husband tortured by the demons of jealousy. With this beautiful tragic novel, Skorobogatov has carved a place for himself in the grand Russian tradition.
— Astrid de Larminat, Le Figaro
A Russian Edgar Allan Poe story, written in a sublime and breathtaking way.
— Lektuurgids
Russian Gothic joins the tradition of tales told from the perspective of unhinged narrators, from Gogol’s Diary of a Madman (1835) to Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991) (…) All the more chilling in light of the conscripts being sent en masse to fight in Ukraine (…) Skorobogatov’s complex psychological portrait is riveting.
— Mia Levitin, The Sunday Times
A short and grand novel about an obsessive jealousy which leads to madness, in the tradition of Gogol’s Diary of a Madman.
— Jean-Claude Vantroyen, Le Soir
This sinister, indeed sulphurous, novella by a Belarus-born author was first published in Russian in 1991, and won major awards. Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse’s English translation, as creepily compelling as the book deserves, appears long after the contemporary hook that Aleksandr Skorobogatov embeds in his tale has lost its topicality. Recent events, however, make this fable of obsession, madness and violence timelier than ever. (…) Admirers of Gogol, Dostoevsky and other literary conjurers of infernal powers, both psychological and social, will find plenty to recognise. (…) The anti-hero’s demonic possession, and the heroine’s long-suffering virtue, may unfold against a broad canvas of Russian writing, with its recurrent spiritual dramas, yet Nikolai also suffers alcohol-enhanced PTSD, bequeathed by the imperial debacles of the moribund Soviet state. His hallucinations have a history. And this English version arrives just as Putin’s war on Ukraine creates thousands more traumatised Nikolais. In his sermon from hell, Bertrand refers to life as ‘a never-ending battle in a never-ending war’. If so, then the Kremlin now hosts the most faithful devil’s disciple of them all.
— Boyd Tonkin, The Spectator
A pulse-pounding modern classic.
— Bent Van Looy, Culture Club Magazine
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A thrilling novel about guilt and atonement.
— Peter Swanborn, De Volkskrant (4 out of 5 stars)
The black, droll humour; the hyperbolic expression, both in dialogue and the author’s prose; the bold assumption that is the Russian writer’s job to take on profound truths about humanity’s successes and failures; the seamless switches from short no-nonsense exposition to grand sighs and world-weary cries. The proliferation of melodramatic exclamation marks! If this is the territory in which your own dark soul thrives (mine certainly does), Russian Gothic will be Prokofiev to your ears.
— Jane Graham, Big Issue
It has been many years since such an original work found its way from Russia to this country. Skorobogatov writes exceptionally well. I read Russian Gothic in one sitting, and after I had finished it, it continued to hold me in its grip. It is an impressive debut that whets the reader’s appetite for more to come.
— Helen Saelman, NRC Handelsblad
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Skorobogatov tells his tale from within the madness of his main character. What is truth and what is only taking place in the head of Nikolaj? The short, feverish chapters carry you away. Nikolaj is caught up in his jealousy and the reader is caught with him.
— i.a. Haarlems Dagblad, Leidsch Dagblad and Noordhollands Dagblad (4 out of 5 stars)
Skorobogatov intertwines sexual obsession, jealousy, fear, aggression and the drive to abandonment with one another, in a work that has strong undertones of the French writer-philosopher Georges Bataille; a dark book that plays with the tempting and at the same time repulsive connection between the erotic and violence, love and hate, reality and nightmare.
— Trouw
Russian Gothic is a breathtaking book, written in the sober prose that is necessary for writing a tale about the logic of madness.
— Dagblad van het Noorden
Timeless and worth all attention.
— Nederlands Dagbad
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s as though an actor has stealthily entered your mind and mesmerizes you with his tale in a husky, smoke-filled voice. That’s how Russian Gothic reads, a surreal novel that strikes a balance between J. Bernlef and David Lynch.
— Karel-Willem Delrue, Cutting Edge (4 out of 5 stars)
Russian Gothic is a sober, subtle and at the same time raw and overwhelming novel that deserves to be read.
— MappaLibri
With Russian Gothic, Skorobogatov endeavors to write a book that could have been penned two hundred years ago and yet still remain relevant today. It’s a timeless work, richly imbued with the ailments of the Russian soul — alcoholism, violence, passions, faith, and patience — crafted in a mesmerizing way.
— Stavros Striligas, Popaganda
With haunting prose and a gripping gaze that skillfully avoids pity or melodrama, the Belarusian author crafts a terrifying atmosphere of suffocation. Aleksandr Skorobogatov combines nuanced discretion with rich literary skill to shape the swirling forces of a paranoid spirit. Literary giants such as Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Kafka, Leonid Andreyev would surely take pride in the legacy they have influenced.
— Nikos Kourmoulis, Book Press
You do not emerge unscathed from Aleksandr Skorobogatov’s story. This concise novel resonates, as Kafka might have phrased it, like an ax cleaving the frozen sea within us. In Russian Gothic, Skorobogatov introduces a kind of literature rarely encountered among contemporary authors, a distinction that has rightfully earned him acclaim. While exploring a familiar theme, he elevates it through a spare narrative style teeming with succinct descriptions, a penetrating gaze, razor-sharp dialogues, and an enigmatic ambiance. Comparisons to Poe are not unfounded, as certain elements draw parallels to the American author, yet Skorobogatov maintains a distinctive, purely Russian essence.
—Vicky Vasilatou-Sarri, Ο ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΗΣ
Skorobogatov is considered as one of the most interesting authors of post-communist Russia.
— De Standaard der Letteren
Aleksandr Skorobogatov is being praised in Moscow and in the West as an absolute discovery.
— De Morgen
Every now and then, albeit very rarely indeed, a novel or story by a totally unknown author gives a glimpse of unexpected genius. The surprise is so great, in fact, that you are compelled to read the work a second time, but now with the clear insight of the initiate. The novel Russian Gothic by the Russian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov is one of these rare, truly impressive achievements.
— Gazet van Antwerpen
Unmatched, timeless mastery.
— Athens Voice
In the first place, Skorobogatov wrote a beautiful, almost classic study.
— Knack
While reading Russian Gothic I sometimes had to think back to Nikolay Gogol’s Diary of a Madman. In both, the story goes beautifully, deliriously off the rails, with or without religious connotations. So, Gogol and perhaps, in some of the nicely laconic and cruel details, a hint of Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird.
— De Morgen
Astounding literary debut.
— Gonzo Circus
The previous year, Russian Gothic received an important award, and the author became a rising star at the literary firmament.
— Gazet van Antwerpen
When you start reading Russian Gothic you understand why it won this prize. It is a fascinating story that immediately grabs you by the throat (and quite honestly, by other parts of your anatomy) and doesn’t let go. The style is very laconic and pointillistic without the clutter of unnecessary details. As in minimalist music, the recurring elements heighten the reader’s apprehension. And this makes the story extremely forceful. The author manages to captivate his reader with a story that is both malicious and voyeuristic. The reader almost becomes an accessory to the fatal ending.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
What he shows with this story is that decades of censorship and social-realistic literature are not sufficient to definitively exterminate individual strength of mind. There is still hope for the Russians.
— Algemeen Dagblad
A novel that reads as a terrifying vision and mystifies you as a David Lynch film. Great literature, great author.
— Focus Knack
This is absolutely unique in Russian literature in general, and especially so in recent years.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
This story would make an incredible film with an atmosphere worthy of a Polanski.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
This novel is in all respects one of the most astonishing books I have read.
— Gierik/NVT
Of Russian origin, Aleksandr Skorobogatov has written what could become a modern Horla.
— Page des Libraires
When we talk about wife abuse, we think straightaway about Afghanistan, Thailand, Somalia. But what about Russian women? Just Google “Russian women” and you will find that, like their Asian or African sisters, women from Russia and Eastern European countries in general are considered as docile objects to be manipulated. In his first novel translated into French, Aleksandr Skorobogatov describes the everyday life of Vera, who is married to a pathologically jealous alcoholic. The author describes the destructive feeling reinforced by alcohol with heart rending realism and brutality. (…) But behind this story of jealousy and a submissive woman lurks a critique of the Soviet era. (…) A rather detached novel, with poignant characters, that shows a small part of the Soviet reality rarely mentioned.
— Le Nouvel Observateur
Aleksandr Skorobogatov has set up a subtle immersion in his hero’s deliriums, leaving the reader a few short breaths of air from time to time. Just to touch the fragile frontier between the reality that escapes Nikolai and the images that he creates that shout out they are true. The narrative goes through the hero’s and the narrator’s hands, muddling their voices.
— Matricule des Anges
You read Skorobogatov in one befuddled breath.
— Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift
In short, Mr. Skorobogatov is a stellar talent, one to keep an eye out for.
— Het Laatste Nieuws
It would be a lot easier if his name was simply Smith or so, but this is unfortunately not the case: Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a name to remember.
— Gazet van Antwerpen
July 19, 2016
Reviews on Portrait of an Unknown Girl by Aleksandr Skorobogatov
‘Best Book of the Year 2015’ by Literatuurplein (The Netherlands)
‘Best Book of the Year 2015’ by TZUM (The Netherlands)
“Aleksandr Skorobogatov has written a novel about the tragic first love between two teenagers in the Soviet Union of the seventies. He describes the thrill of that first time in a blistering way. Your first great love never leaves you. Russian writers, masters of melancholy, often know how to beautifully give voice to it. Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a contemporary chronicler of that great feeling in his fifth novel Portrait of an unknown girl. Skorobogatov describes it in long meandering sentences, a stylistic hallmark of his earlier books as well. For everything in this beautiful novel revolves around being in love, around physical desire, around enjoying each other’s beauty, around the first time they have sex when the parents aren’t at home. And so richly is it described that Skorobogatov carries you away and enchants you with his beautiful language.”
– Michel Krielaars, NRC Handelsblad
“Portrait of an Unknown Girl seems to continue seamlessly a Russian literary tradition in which great feelings are allowed to roam freely. Think of Turgenev’s First Love or a story by Ivan Bunin. Skorobogatov evokes such feelings in an exceptional fashion. His novel is witty where it needs to be, sensual where it wants to be, and subtle about the ‘precarious, sweet mixture of feelings that you want to rend asunder, but want to sustain even more.’
From the first page you’re aware that a refined stylist is wielding his pen. Quickly, you find yourself immersed knee-deep in this novel, which is full of melancholic, poised images and passionate sentences. Along the way, Skorobogatov skilfully conjures up the atmosphere of the crumbling Soviet empire in a far-off corner of Belarus ruled by alcoholism, boredom and petty fights. Skorobogatov’s richly varied prose adds a gentle glow to the whole. Portrait of an Unknown Girl is a real discovery.” — Dirk Leyman, De Morgen
“Aleksandr Skorobogatov is in every respect an heir to the Russian storytelling tradition. What writers like Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Gogol did over a century ago, he now does in a modern guise: giving shape to the Russian soul in lyrical language, in a story about love and revenge, opportunism and honor. The play with language takes primacy for Skorobogatov, and it’s a game he has mastered to perfectie.” – Noord Hollands Dagblad
“An epic composed with such subtlety that it deserves to be called a work of genius.” – Guus Bauer, Literatuurplein
“Skorobogatov turns out to be our own Belgian-Russian master stortteller.” – Feeling Magazine, 4 out of 4 stars
“This novel, written in grand and restrained style, is exquisiet.” — NBD Biblion
“Stunning novel.” — TZUM
‘Best Book of the Year 2015’ by TZUM (The Netherlands)
“Aleksandr Skorobogatov has written a novel about the tragic first love between two teenagers in the Soviet Union of the seventies. He describes the thrill of that first time in a blistering way. Your first great love never leaves you. Russian writers, masters of melancholy, often know how to beautifully give voice to it. Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a contemporary chronicler of that great feeling in his fifth novel Portrait of an unknown girl. Skorobogatov describes it in long meandering sentences, a stylistic hallmark of his earlier books as well. For everything in this beautiful novel revolves around being in love, around physical desire, around enjoying each other’s beauty, around the first time they have sex when the parents aren’t at home. And so richly is it described that Skorobogatov carries you away and enchants you with his beautiful language.”
– Michel Krielaars, NRC Handelsblad
“Portrait of an Unknown Girl seems to continue seamlessly a Russian literary tradition in which great feelings are allowed to roam freely. Think of Turgenev’s First Love or a story by Ivan Bunin. Skorobogatov evokes such feelings in an exceptional fashion. His novel is witty where it needs to be, sensual where it wants to be, and subtle about the ‘precarious, sweet mixture of feelings that you want to rend asunder, but want to sustain even more.’
From the first page you’re aware that a refined stylist is wielding his pen. Quickly, you find yourself immersed knee-deep in this novel, which is full of melancholic, poised images and passionate sentences. Along the way, Skorobogatov skilfully conjures up the atmosphere of the crumbling Soviet empire in a far-off corner of Belarus ruled by alcoholism, boredom and petty fights. Skorobogatov’s richly varied prose adds a gentle glow to the whole. Portrait of an Unknown Girl is a real discovery.” — Dirk Leyman, De Morgen
“Aleksandr Skorobogatov is in every respect an heir to the Russian storytelling tradition. What writers like Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, and Gogol did over a century ago, he now does in a modern guise: giving shape to the Russian soul in lyrical language, in a story about love and revenge, opportunism and honor. The play with language takes primacy for Skorobogatov, and it’s a game he has mastered to perfectie.” – Noord Hollands Dagblad
“An epic composed with such subtlety that it deserves to be called a work of genius.” – Guus Bauer, Literatuurplein
“Skorobogatov turns out to be our own Belgian-Russian master stortteller.” – Feeling Magazine, 4 out of 4 stars
“This novel, written in grand and restrained style, is exquisiet.” — NBD Biblion
“Stunning novel.” — TZUM
December 23, 2015
Book of the Year 2015
'Portrait of an Unknown Girl' by Aleksandr Skorobogatov: 'Book of the Year 2015' according to Literatuurplein.nl. Tremendously many thanks!
'Portret van een onbekend meisje' van Aleksandr Skorobogatov: 'Boek van het Jaar 2015' volgens Literatuurplein.nl. Waarvoor onmetelijk veel dank!
'Portret van een onbekend meisje' van Aleksandr Skorobogatov: 'Boek van het Jaar 2015' volgens Literatuurplein.nl. Waarvoor onmetelijk veel dank!
