Depeche Mode

"despite the (by now far too) familiar tropes and types, and the excessive reliance on excessive alcohol consumption, depeche mode stands out among novels of the early post-soviet transition - going beyond these, as well as offering a few very nice literary flourishes and twists, early evidence of zhadan's promise as a writer." m.a.orthofer, the complete review

"more, perhaps, than any other writer from the post-soviet era, serhiy zhadan speaks to this experience of national and personal upheaval... zhadan gives us a flneur's perspective on post-soviet urban life, with its ruined socialist architecture, industrial wastelands, petty crime and violence. the absurdity of the clash of socialist and western culture is also sharply observed." uilleam blacker, the times literary supplement

"serhiy zhadan is a poet and novelist whose work has been likened to rimbaud, charles bukowski and irvine welsh. depeche mode is his debut novel, and it depicts ukrainian youth during the turbulence of the 1990s. [...] the characters confront elements of their reality and embark on a sad and dramatic adventure around kharkiv and further afield. " saffron swire, reaction

"in fact, serhiy is not only a brilliant novelist but also a superb poet who succeeds in blending tradition and modernity in his verse. kerouac and skovoroda, semenko and ginsberg." massimiliano di pasquale, eastonline

Serhiy Zhadan is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, essayist, and translator. Zhadan was born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine. He graduated from H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University in 1996 with a thesis on the work of Mykhaylo Semenko and the Ukrainian Futurist writers of the 1920s. He then spent three years as a graduate student of philology, and taught Ukrainian and world literature from 2000 to 2004. Since then he has worked as a freelance writer.Starting his career in 1990 his verses revolutionized Ukrainian poetry: they were less sentimental, reviving the style of 1920s Ukrainian avant-garde writers like Semenko or Johanssen. And they drew upon his homeland: the industrial landscapes of East Ukraine. Voroshilovgrad (the Soviet name for Luhansk) tells a story of a young man called Herman who left his home city Starobilsk (in the Luhansk region) but who has to come back to his native lands to protect something that belongs to him. Based on the book, Yaroslav Lodygin directed the award-winning movie The Wild Fields ( , 2018).Zhadan is an internationally known Ukrainian writer, with 12 books of poetry and 7 novels, and winner of more than a dozen literary awards. In March 2008, the Russian translation of his novel Anarchy in the UKR made the shortlist of the National Bestseller Prize. It was also a contender for "Book of the Year" at the 2008 Moscow International Book Exhibition. In 2009 he won the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Prize. In 2012 Gunshot and Knife won Ukrainian rating "Book of the Year" for fiction. His 2010 novel Voroshylovhrad won him the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature in Switzerland, BBC Ukrainian's "Book of the Decade" award and Brcke Berlin Prize. His selected poems Dynamo Kharkiv won Ukrainian "Book of the Year." (2014) His book Mesopotamia won the Angelus literature prize in 2015, the Award of the President of Ukraine "Ukrainian Book of the Year" in 2016.Zhadan has translated poetry from German, English, Belarusian, and Russian, from such poets as Paul Celan and Charles Bukowski. His own works have been translated into German, English, Estonian, French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Belarusian, Russian, Hungarian, Armenian, and Czech.

introduction n o. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

introduction n o. 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

introduction n o. 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

introduction n o. 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

part one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72

part two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142

book no. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166

epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182