The Funeral Party
'Dazzling . . . [An] engrossing study of a vivacious personality slipping away' THE TIMES 'Rich in detail, elusive in meaning, light in touch' MOSCOW TIMES In a small apartment in New York, in the sweltering mid-summer heat, a group of Russian emigres gather around the sickbed of an artist named Alik. Nina, his wife, is desperate for Alik to be baptised; Irina, his ex-lover, a circus acrobat turned lawyer, quietly pays the bills; elderly Maria dispenses magical herbs; and Maika, Irina's fifteen-year-old daughter, prepares to lose the only man to make her laugh. As the visitors fuss and reminisce over Alik, in a corner of the crowded room the television shows the uprising outside the White House in Moscow and the tanks closing in on the city . . .
Author: Ludmila Ulitskaya
Format: Paperback, 176 pages, 133mm x 196mm, 161 g
Published: 2015, Orion Publishing Co, United Kingdom
Genre: General & Literary Fiction
'Dazzling . . . [An] engrossing study of a vivacious personality slipping away' THE TIMES 'Rich in detail, elusive in meaning, light in touch' MOSCOW TIMES In a small apartment in New York, in the sweltering mid-summer heat, a group of Russian emigres gather around the sickbed of an artist named Alik. Nina, his wife, is desperate for Alik to be baptised; Irina, his ex-lover, a circus acrobat turned lawyer, quietly pays the bills; elderly Maria dispenses magical herbs; and Maika, Irina's fifteen-year-old daughter, prepares to lose the only man to make her laugh. As the visitors fuss and reminisce over Alik, in a corner of the crowded room the television shows the uprising outside the White House in Moscow and the tanks closing in on the city . . .