Books: 109 posts

Books and reading lists

Hay Festival Wales 2023 : Meet Me on June 2

I’m delighted to share that I will be participating in Hay Festival Wales 2023. The program is now live at hayfestival.org/wales.

Friday 2 June 2023, 5.30pm
Event 298 Victoria Belim and Kevin Jared Hosein in conversation with Rosie Goldsmith
I recently read Hosein’s novel Hungry Ghosts and it moved and impressed me, so I look forward to our conversation.

I will also participate in Passa Porta Festival in Brussels on March 26th, when Oksana Zabuzhko and I will meet for a conversation. If you are in Brussels, I hope to meet you there. For my other book news, please take a look at The Rooster House book page.

In other news, I made the cover of The Bookseller magazine last month. I spoke with Caroline Sanderson about The Rooster House, Ukraine and yearning for home. Our interview is included in the issue.

“A Wild Swans for Ukraine is how I’ve come to think of The Rooster House: A Ukrainian Family Memoir by Victoria Belim. An enthralling richly-layered story told across four generations, it’s a major 2023 title for Virago, was one of the most talked-about books at London Book Fair 2022 and is set to be published in 16 languages. It powerfully illuminates the context of the current conflict in Ukraine but goes beyond it too in reflecting on culture and art, geography and language and how they influence the complexities of who we are.” Victoria Belim in conversation about her memoir, a history of her family’s past and a celebration of Ukrainian identity

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Reading Sa’di’s Gulistan

Master, ‘ostad,’ is a nickname the Persian poet Sa’di of Shiraz (1210-1291/92) rightfully deserves. His verses are elegant and his prose contains many thoughtful observations on morals, love, and life in general. Sa’di’s Gulistan, Rose Garden, written in 1258 was once a book of instruction and it remains one of the marvels of Persian literature. I recommend the translation by W.M. Thackston. You can open the book at random and find marvelous passages on different topics: The Art of Conversation, on Love, on the Conduct of Kings, on Dervishes.

I’m reading the Persian section out loud to savor the beautiful language of Sa’di. You can also find it recorded online in Persian, and even if you don’t understand the language, you will still enjoy Sa’di’s musicality.

Here is one favorite passage:
“Are you musk or ambergris?” I asked, “for I am intoxicated by your enchanting fragrance.”
“I used to be just mud,” it said. “A mere nothing, but I sat for a time with the roses,
And the perfection of my companions had an effect on me. Otherwise I am nothing but dust.”

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Three Travelogues to Read This Fall

With summer travels winding down, autumn is a good time to turn to travelogues to satisfy one’s wanderlust. I have always been a fan of this genre, being a traveler myself, and recent releases promise to take us to far-flung locations. My favorite travelogues combine explorations of culture with history and provide a way to understand how the past influences the present.

A good traveler arrives at a place without strong preconceived notions and allows it to take them in–or reject them, as sometimes happens. This sensitivity is what distinguishes modern travel writing from classical examples, but all excellent travelogues share the same trait in that they transport the reader to another place. When our world feels narrower due to travel restrictions and cumbersome rules, opening a book is the easiest way to break down walls.

Erica Fatland, The Border: A Journey Around Russia Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and the Northeast Passage.

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My Ukraine : On Storytelling and Family

In 2014 I returned to Ukraine, the country where I was born, to spend time with my grandmother Valentina and rediscover the place that shaped me. The result was several long trips that I made sometimes more than once a year. I have lived for most of my life outside of Ukraine, and reconnecting with it inspired me. I discovered its rich culture, beautiful nature, and delicious food. Its scents, sounds, and colors filled me. 
One of my most moving experiences was visiting the town of Reshetylivka and learning about the white-on-white embroideries, an intricate technique that looks like lace. Nadia Vakulenko, the master in charge of the embroidery program at the local college, taught me the basics and became a close friend. And I ended up absorbed by Ukraine completely.

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Three Classics and One Great Novel

The first time I encountered a perfume that beguiled me was on the pages of a book. The sultry red-haired witch in Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita enticed women with the promise of “Guerlain, Chanel No. 5, Mitsouko, Narcisse Noir, evening gowns, cocktail dresses...” It would be some years before I smelled these perfumes, but their names left a “baffling but seductive” imprint, just as suggested by the novel.

It is no accident that Bulgakov selected Chanel No 5, Guerlain Mitsouko and Caron Narcisse Noir. Those were the fragrances worn by his wife, Elena Bulgakova, the muse for Margarita in the novel. Elena Bulgakova’s granddaughter from her first marriage used to be part of my family. She often mentioned how much her grandmother loved fragrance, especially the three perfumes mentioned in the novel. Chanel No 5 evoked elegance for her. Mitsouko conveyed sophistication. And Caron was pure magic in its opulent glamour.

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