The Book of Anna
Published on 28. May 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-1-56689-577-4 (ISBN)
Description
In this continuation of Anna Karenina's legacy, Russia simmers on the brink of change and the stories that have long been kept secret finally come to light.
Saint Petersburg, 1905. Behind the gates of the Karenin Palace, Sergei, son of Anna Karenina, meets Tolstoy in his dreams and finds reminders of his mother everywhere: the vivid portrait that the tsar intends to acquire and the opium-infused manuscripts Anna wrote just before her death, which open a trapdoor to a wild feminist fairy tale. Across the city, Clementine, an anarchist seamstress, and Father Gapon, the charismatic leader of the proletariat, plan protests that embroil the downstairs members of the Karenin household in their plots and tip the country ever closer to revolution. Boullosa tells a polyphonic and subversive tale of the Russian revolution through the lens of Tolstoy's most beloved work.
Saint Petersburg, 1905. Behind the gates of the Karenin Palace, Sergei, son of Anna Karenina, meets Tolstoy in his dreams and finds reminders of his mother everywhere: the vivid portrait that the tsar intends to acquire and the opium-infused manuscripts Anna wrote just before her death, which open a trapdoor to a wild feminist fairy tale. Across the city, Clementine, an anarchist seamstress, and Father Gapon, the charismatic leader of the proletariat, plan protests that embroil the downstairs members of the Karenin household in their plots and tip the country ever closer to revolution. Boullosa tells a polyphonic and subversive tale of the Russian revolution through the lens of Tolstoy's most beloved work.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for The Book of AnnaA Words Without Borders Best Translated Book of 2020
"Ms. Boullosa's conceptual trick is to stage a collision between the dream life of the novel and the hard realities of politics. . . . The conceit drops the largely private, domestic story into the wider stream of history. Tolstoy would have hated this sort of intellectual game playing, but the subversion is perhaps even more fun for that. No surprise, it all ends with an explosion." -Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"Drawing together servants, diplomats, anarchists, seamstresses and aristocrats at the eve of the Russian Revolution, Boullosa brings heightened eroticism, feminism, and liberation to Tolstoy's imagined world." -Lauren LeBlanc, Observer
"[A] succinct yet electrifying homage to Tolstoy's Anna Karenina." -Ellie Simon, World Literature Today
"[A] slim, playful sequel set in the early twentieth century that is deeply attuned to the concerns of the twenty-first." -Chicago Review of Books
"[O]ffers a new twist to Anna Karenina that centers her children on the eve of the Russian Revolution. . . . Boullosa offers an original perspective on this Russian classic that may light the subversive spark lying dormant within." -Ms. Magazine
"[P]resented in parallel with stories and characters that were not part of Tolstoy's 1878 novel, The Book of Anna is also an imagining of the book that Anna herself was working on. . . . Boullosa tips the notion of fiction on its head." -Buzzfeed
"A masterwork in irony: playful and indulgent without ever becoming pretentious. The translation by Samantha Schnee glitters, firmly and fabulously navigating voice across class, time, and genre." -Rachael Daum, Words Without Borders
"[A] luminous translation by Samantha Schnee. . . . Boullosa has turned a feminist lens toward historical fiction." -Ploughshares
"[The Book of Anna] will surely become a modern classic." -Paperback Paris
"An innovative delight." -The Book Slut
"[C]lever and entertaining, with vivid characters and an absorbing story and even a short fairytale-like book written by Anna herself. It's bursting with energy and life." -Rebecca Hussey, BookRiot
"A delightfully original and enjoyable book-Russian literature seen through Latin American eyes, and made into something new." -Salman Rusdie
"Historical and yet uncannily actual, readerly and yet deeply writerly, The Book of Anna is a much-needed reminder of the performative power of fiction in unjust and turbulent times." -Barbara Browning
"A beguiling return to the world created by Tolstoy. This beautiful translation takes Anna Karenina's story a step further, showing how a single tragedy ripples across generations." -Elliot Ackerman
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
MN
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 208 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
236 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-56689-577-4 (9781566895774)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Carmen Boullosa-a Cullman Center, a Guggenheim, a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, and a Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes Fellow-was born in Mexico City in 1954. She's a poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, and artist, and has been a professor at New York University, Columbia University, City College-City University of New York, Georgetown, and other institutions. She's now at Macaulay Honors College-City University of New York. The New York Public Library acquired her papers and artist books. More than a dozen books and over ninety dissertations have been written about her work.
Samantha Schnee is the founding editor of Words Without Borders, dedicated to publishing the world's best literature translated into English. Her translation of Boullosa's Texas: The Great Theft was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for the PEN America Translation Prize. She won the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation for her work on Boullosa's El complot de los Romanticos.
Samantha Schnee is the founding editor of Words Without Borders, dedicated to publishing the world's best literature translated into English. Her translation of Boullosa's Texas: The Great Theft was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for the PEN America Translation Prize. She won the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation for her work on Boullosa's El complot de los Romanticos.