Silences Roar: The Life and Drama of Nikolai Erdman

by John Freedman

Nikolai Erdman is one of the giants of Russian literature. He is best know for his play The Suicide, published by Mosaic Press in English translation. Stalin had this play banned and suppressed for over 50 years. With ‘Glastnost’ the reputation and interest in the life and work of Erdman has been rekindled in the USSR and in the West. Silence’s Roar – The Life and Drama of Nikolai Erdman is the seminal work on Erdman and the literary and artistic period of his times.

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

John Freedman is a writer and translator who, for decades, concentrated on Russian drama and theater, but has recently refocused his efforts to work from Ukraine and Belarus. He lived in Moscow for 30 years, 25 of which he spent as the theater critic of the English-language daily The Moscow Times. He worked as the English language specialist in the International Department of Moscow's Stanislavsky Electrotheatre from 2015-2022. His play "Dancing, Not Dead" won the Internationalists Global Playwriting Contest in 2011, and his 150 or more translations of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian plays have been performed on every English-speaking continent. "A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War: 20 Short Works by Ukrainian Playwrights," compiled, edited and translated by Freedman for Laertes Press, was named No. 22 in the Telegraph's list of the top 50 books of 2023. He currently lives on the island of Crete in Greece.