Tango of Death

Yuri Vynnychuk was born in 1952 in Stanislaviv (now called Ivano-Frankivsk) in Western Ukraine. He is a man of many hats: prose fiction writer, poet, translator, journalist, editor, anthologizer, satirist, translator, comic stage performer, playwright, and culinary specialist to name several that come to mind. He was designated a Golden Writer of Ukraine in 2012 and is one of the country's most prolific writers. His works have earned numerous prizes including the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year Award twice for his novels Spring Games in Autumn Gardens (2005) and Tango of Death (2012). During his undergraduate days in Stanislaviv, Vynnychuk fell under the watchful eye of the KGB. In part to escape that surveillance, he moved to the larger city of Lviv after graduating in 1973. He continues to reside there to this day and has become one of the major champions of his adopted city. Until 1980 he was blacklisted from publishing under the repressive Soviet regime but managed still to do so under various pseudonyms. After emerging from the underground, Vynnychuk rose to swift popularity in Western Ukraine (Galicia) with his singing and performance group "Don't Worry!" (founded in 1987), his fantastic stories and novellas in his collection of shorter works The Flashing Beacon (1990), and his pulp fiction erotic novel Maidens of the Night (1992). Since then he has published scores of fiction and non-fiction books, anthologies, children's books, and translations. Controversy has followed Vynnychuk throughout his creative lifetime: in particular for his overt male perspective on eroticism in his writings as well as for his satirical jibes at political and cultural figures both in Soviet and post-Ukrainian-independence times. In 2012 he was vilified by elements of the corrupt and now thankfully former Yanukovych regime for his satirical poem "Kill the Mother," which was circulated widely on the Internet. Vynnychuk's name more recently also was included in the infamous "List of 47," which consisted of 47 prominent Ukrainian cultural and political figures targeted for assassination by Russian-backed killers. The novel Tango of Death with the city of Lviv as one of its main heroes represents the pinnacle of Vynnychuk's craft and showcases his superb stylistic mastery.