The Zekamaron
One Hundred Days from Behind Bars and Eyelashes
Published on 1. March 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-910895-75-7 (ISBN)
Description
'It's a terse account of painful experience, prison, bewilderment; hugely atmospheric and extremely funny - full of dry wit and small biting observations.' - Anna Vaught
'Maxim Znak's message is that wry humour and humanity trump the cruel absurdities of the regime (...) These stories, one hundred of them, none longer than three pages, have echoes of early Chekhov, Zoshchenko and Samuel Beckett' - Michael Purs
The 100 tales in Zekameron are based on the 14th Century Decameron, but Znak is closer to Beckett than to Boccaccio. Banality and brutality vie with the human ability to overcome oppression. Znak's stories in different voices chart 100 days in prison in Belarus today. The tone is laconic, ironic; the humour dry. The stories bear witness to resistance and self-assertion and the genuine warmth and appreciation of fellow prisoners.
'Maxim Znak's message is that wry humour and humanity trump the cruel absurdities of the regime (...) These stories, one hundred of them, none longer than three pages, have echoes of early Chekhov, Zoshchenko and Samuel Beckett' - Michael Purs
The 100 tales in Zekameron are based on the 14th Century Decameron, but Znak is closer to Beckett than to Boccaccio. Banality and brutality vie with the human ability to overcome oppression. Znak's stories in different voices chart 100 days in prison in Belarus today. The tone is laconic, ironic; the humour dry. The stories bear witness to resistance and self-assertion and the genuine warmth and appreciation of fellow prisoners.
Reviews / Votes
Maxim Znak's message is that wry humour and humanity trump the cruel absurdities of the regime [...] These stories, one hundred of them, none longer than three pages, have echoes of early Chekhov, Zoshchenko and Samuel Beckett and, ultimately, of Giovanni Boccaccio and Vernon Kress, who used the punning title for his 1991 novel of the Gulag.- Michael Pursglove
The fact that this book exists at all should be a miracle. Simply because the stories were smuggled out ... The true sensation, however, is the mental achievement the prisoner Maxim Znak was capable of: that in his situation, which could really be called hopeless, he still possesses the internal freedom to create literature.
- Cornelia Geissler, Berliner Zeitung
[Znak] uses the weapons that dictators like Lukashenko detest most: humour, wit, publicity.
- Jens Uthoff, taz.die tageszeitung
It's a terse account of painful experience, prison, bewilderment; hugely atmospheric and extremely funny - full of dry wit and small biting observations.
- Anna Vaught
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
246 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-910895-75-7 (9781910895757)
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
Persons
Born in Minsk in 1981, Maxim Znak is an international lawyer from Belarus. After the presidential election of August 2020, he gathered hard evidence of the many violations of the electoral process and sought to take legal action by ensuring that the election results were reviewed by an independent body. Maxim Znak was arrested on 9 September 2020 and held in Remand Prison no. 1 in Minsk until 26 December 2021. This prison has the shocking reputation of being the only one in Europe where the death penalty is still being carried out. It was here that Znak wrote his stories, which later found themselves outside the prison walls.
Once outside, the stories were sent directly to Jim Dingley who previously translated two books from Belarus for Scotland Street Press. Dingley immediately sent the manuscript to Scotland Street Press. Its arrival was a huge consideration: would its publication endanger Znak's life, or agitate successfully for his release? By September 2021 this brilliant lawyer was already re-sentenced to ten years in a penal colony in the North of Belarus. His wife and sister urged to go ahead with publication.
Valzhyna Mort was born in the same city and same year as Znak. She is a poet who writes in English and Belarusian. Her most recent volume of poetry, Music for the Dead and Resurrected, was published to great critical acclaim in 2020. She is the recipient of many international literary awards. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Literatures in English, Cornell University, Ithaca NY.
Once outside, the stories were sent directly to Jim Dingley who previously translated two books from Belarus for Scotland Street Press. Dingley immediately sent the manuscript to Scotland Street Press. Its arrival was a huge consideration: would its publication endanger Znak's life, or agitate successfully for his release? By September 2021 this brilliant lawyer was already re-sentenced to ten years in a penal colony in the North of Belarus. His wife and sister urged to go ahead with publication.
Valzhyna Mort was born in the same city and same year as Znak. She is a poet who writes in English and Belarusian. Her most recent volume of poetry, Music for the Dead and Resurrected, was published to great critical acclaim in 2020. She is the recipient of many international literary awards. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Literatures in English, Cornell University, Ithaca NY.