Baba Dunja's Last Love

by Alina Bronsky, Tim Mohr (Translator)

Overview

A defiant woman and her colorful neighbors reclaim their homes in Chernobyl in this “enthralling story of humor, tragedy, and triumph” (World Literature Today).

There may be government warnings about radiation levels in her hometown of Tschernowo—also known as Chernobyl—but Baba Dunja has returned. And she’s brought a motley bunch of her former neighbors with her. With the town largely to themselves, and lots of strangely misshapen fruit, they have everything they need to start anew.
The terminally ill Petrov passes the time reading love poems in his hammock; Marja takes up with the almost 100-year-old Sidorow; Baba Dunja whiles away her days writing letters to her daughter. Life is beautiful. But then a stranger turns up in the village, and once again the little idyllic settlement faces annihilation.
From Alina Bronsky, the acclaimed Russian-born German author of Broken Glass Park and The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine, comes the story of a post-meltdown settlement and an unusual woman who finds her version of paradise late in life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609453336
Publisher:	Europa Editions, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	1,048,739
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Russian-born Alina Bronksy is the author of Broken Glass Park (Europa, 2010); The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine (Europa, 2011), named a Best Book of 2011 by The Wall Street Journal , The Huffington Post , and Publishers Weekly ; and Just Call Me Superhero (Europa, 2014).

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Baba Dunja's Last Love

“Through Tim Mohr’s succinct translation, Bronsky has written an enthralling story of humor, tragedy, and triumph that takes the reader deeper into Baba Dunja’s psyche, where we see how everyone has their own idea of paradise, and for some, perhaps paradise is what’s familiar and not necessarily what’s idyllic."
—World Literature Today

"With quiet understatement, Bronsky offers us a glimpse of life in the radioactive abyss."
— Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Alina Bronsky
 
“Alina Bronsky writes with a gritty authenticity and unputdownable propulsion.”
— Vogue
 
“Bronsky instinctively understands that the way to a reader’s heart is through great characters.”
—Library Journal
 
“Bronsky’s great gift is humor.”
— The Los Angeles Times

 
Praise for Broken Glass Park
 
“What a literary creation! No wonder this book was such a sensation in Europe.”
— Shelf Awareness
 
“A riveting debut.”
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
 
“A sharp and funny first novel.”
— The Minneapolis Star Tribune

 
Praise for The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine
 
“Mordantly funny.”
— The San Francisco Chronicle
 
“A masterful study in delusion.”
— The Financial Times
 
“[Rosa is] one of the most fascinating women in the world.”
— The Millions
 
“What begins as a cruel comic romp ends as a surprisingly winning story of hardship and resilience.”
— The New Yorker

From the Publisher

2016-04-13
A quiet novel about a woman who returns home after some time away—not unusual in itself, perhaps, but it is when the home she returns to is in Chernobyl. As one might expect, life is both quiet and grim in Chernobyl (or Tschernowo, as it's referred to by the Russian narrator, who's also the title character). Baba Dunja is recognized as one of the pioneers of the region, for she is one of only two current residents who lived in Chernobyl "before the reactor" and has returned to make some kind of life for herself, though it's a grim one. Not even half the houses are inhabited on the main road, and everyone not from the region—primarily those residents of the nearest town, Malyschi—shuns everyone from Chernobyl, fearing they'll be contaminated by radiation. She and her neighbors occupy themselves with getting food and just getting through the day. Baba Dunja has a daughter, Irina, a medical doctor in Germany, as well as a granddaughter whom she has never met. Mother and daughter have a desultory correspondence, and Irina very much wants Baba Dunja to leave the "death zone." And while Baba Dunja has never met her granddaughter, she has a picture and occasional glimpses of her life through Irina's letters. By the end of the story we learn that the image of her family Baba Dunja has been encouraged to create is out of kilter with reality. The central event in the narrative is the death of a man who comes to Chernobyl with his healthy daughter to get revenge on his wife—and the townspeople, especially Baba Dunja, recognize how foolish it is to undertake such a venture with such a motivation. With quiet understatement, Bronsky offers us a glimpse of life in the radioactive abyss.

Kirkus Reviews