The Zekamaron
One Hundred Days from Behind Bars and Eyelashes
Maxim Znak author Jim and Ella Dingley translator Valzhyna Mort editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Scotland Street Press
Published:1st Mar '23
Should be back in stock very soon
Scotland Street Press is a small independent publisher based in Edinburgh
One hundred stories written in prison in Belarus in 2021 awaiting trial. While the futures of fellow prisoners hang in the balance, every detail of life is important: from the steps of the cockroach to the snores of cell mates.
‘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 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
- Books are selected for PEN Translates awards on the basis of outstanding literary quality, the strength of the publishing project, and their contribution to UK bibliodiversity.
ISBN: 9781910895757
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 19mm
Weight: 262g
272 pages