Bone China, or Letters Not about Love

Svetlana Boym was a prolific writer of literary essays, fiction, and plays, as well as a keen photographer. Her books included The Future of Nostalgia (2001) and Another Freedom: An Alternative History of an Idea (2010). She taught at Harvard University until her death in 2015.

“From a broken leg to a glorified crutch, Svetlana Boym transforms her medical treatment into a waking dream, casting herself as the Russian Baba Yaga, a witch with a bone leg. Between fiction and reality, the broken bone at the center of this story becomes a metaphor for other breaks. While on bedrest, Svetlana Boym embarks on a ghostly journey across Boston, Budapest, Moscow, New York, Sarajevo, St Petersburg, exploring the world’s fractures. Referring to other writers—Nicolai Gogol, Viktor Shklovsky and Vladimir Nabokov—Svetlana Boym wonders over and over in echo: ‘Who am I when I am alone?’ A rich, colorful, and fascinating novel.”—Kristian Feigelson, Professor of Sociology, University Sorbonne Nouvelle, Research Fellow at NYU (Jordan Center)“With wit, tenderness, and intellectual daring, Boym reflects on fractured bodies and fractured worlds. A modern Decameron, the book is crowded with friends—real neighbors and lovers, and no less real artists and writers, some living, some living on.”—Cristina Vatulescu, Director, Center for the Humanities, New York University“This, the last of Svetlana’s works, escorts us, via a set of recurring motifs, through a succession of non-linear episodes which traverse etymology, autobiography, fairy tale, detective story, poetry and cryptic observations on her own life and the passing of the old world into the new. Famed for her work on nostalgia, her writing will be read with delight into the far future.”—Ron Roberts, Honorary Lecturer in Psychology, Kingston University, London, author of The Off-Modern, Psychology Estranged

• List of FiguresPrefaceStephanie SandlerBones and BanishmentsFriends and FreedomsBlizzard Decameron, Night One: Little Mermaid, Marco Polo, and Captain AhabArticulations and Missing ArticlesClaws of a Semi-Feral CatThe Tongue Bone and a Touch of IntimacyLetters Not About LoveBone China and Immigrant CrazingsBlizzard Decameron, Night Two: Lolita and the Lame DickPlacebo: Psyche and CupidX-Rays and Russian Fairy TalesBreak a Leg!Blizzard Decameron, Night Three: Rear Window in SarajevoThe Diary of PainAccident, MDPhantom LimbsMiracles, Moon Cats, and Sun DogsLegwork Blizzard Decameron, Night Four: Apollo and Daphne in St. PetersburgPanic, Tibia, Loneliness, and SolitudeFibula of the Baboon and the Original Google BookConvalescenceFunny BoneBlizzard Decameron, Night Five: Musical Tibia: On the Anti-Narcissistic Origins of ArtStep into the Same River Twice