Bride and Groom

by Alisa Ganieva, Carol Apollonio (Translator)

Overview

One of The Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books of 2018

One of World Literature Today's Notable Translations of 2018

One of the Asian Book Review's Best Books of 2018

From one of the most exciting voices in modern Russian literature, Alisa Ganieva, comes Bride and Groom, the tumultuous love story of two young city-dwellers who meet when they return home to their families in rural Dagestan. When traditional family expectations and increasing religious and cultural tension threaten to shatter their bond, Marat and Patya struggle to overcome obstacles determined to keep them apart, while fate seems destined to keep them together—until the very end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941920596
Publisher:	Deep Vellum Publishing
Publication date:	03/27/2018
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Alisa Ganieva, born in 1985, grew up in Makhachkala, the capital of the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, wedged between the Caspian Sea, Chechnya, and Azerbaijan. Her literary debut, the novella Salaam, Dalgat!, published under a male pseudonym, provoked contradictory reactions in Russia: astonishment, especially among young Russians, at this unknown part of their country; and anger among radical Islamists at this negative portrayal of their homeland by one of their own. Salaam, Dalgat! won the prestigious Debut Prize in 2009, and Ganieva revealed her true identity only at the award ceremony. Ganieva's debut novel, The Mountain and the Wall, was shortlisted for all three of Russia's major literary awards, Deep Vellum published it in English in 2015, marking the first novel ever published in English by a Dagestani author. Bride and Groom was published in Russia in 2015 and was the runner-up for Russia's most prestigious literary award, the Russian Booker Prize. Ganieva's novels have been translated into a dozen languages. She lives in Moscow, where she works as a cultural journalist and literary critic.

Dr. Carol Apollonio is Professor of the Practice of Russian at Duke University. Her most recent literary translations include German Sadulaev's The Maya Pill (Dalkey Archive, 2014) and Alisa Ganieva's debut novel, The Mountain and the Wall (Deep Vellum, 2015). In addition to being an accomplished translator, Dr. Apollonio is also a scholar specializing in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Chekhov and on problems of translation. She is the author of the monograph Dostoevsky's Secrets (2009), and she has edited volumes and numerous articles on nineteenth century Russian literature. She was awarded the Russian Ministry of Culture’s Chekhov Medal in 2010, and she currently serves as President of the North American Dostoevsky Society.

Table of Contents

1. A Drink with a Stranger
2. A List of Brides
3. Poor Sinner
4. Out Visiting
5. What a Concert!
6. A Curse
7. Neighbor Women
8. Fortune-Telling and a Dead Man
9. At Zarema's
10. A Patch of Green
11. Hand and Heart
12. A Chat with a Drunkard
13. Wedding

Editorial Reviews

06/11/2018
This humorous and entertaining marriage drama from Ganieva (The Mountain and the Wall) centers on Patya and Marat, two star-crossed Dagestanis intent on marrying despite intense pushback from their conservative families and community. After spending a year in Moscow and failing to find a suitor, 25-year-old Patya returns to her small hometown in Dagestan, where her overbearing parents try to pressure her into a relationship with Timur, an outspoken local activist. Marat’s parents, meanwhile, have taken a different tack, reserving an expensive banquet hall for his wedding even though he has no girlfriend, much less a bride. The two characters meet during Patya and Timur’s unsuccessful date at a rally for a jailed neighborhood crime boss, Khalilbek, and later meet in public at a café, scandalizing the community. Though offstage for the most part, Khalilbek proves to be a major wedge between the two lovers’ families, as Patya’s mother cites Marat’s family’s allegiance to Khalilbek as a reason not to go through with the marriage. Nevertheless, Patya accepts Marat’s proposal and a wedding is hastily planned, though a sudden, surprising issue with the groom casts the entire ceremony into doubt. Though the novel builds its gossipy world too slowly and resolves its narrative too quickly, Ganieva’s writing is consistently witty and energetic, crafting an appropriately complicated image of a place and people united and divided by tradition and progress, old grudges and new unions. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Longlisted for the Read Russia 2020 Prize

Runner-up for 2015 Russian Booker Prize

"A bold and startling novel." —Viv Groskop, The Guardian

"The book is wonderfully transportive, and while full of beautifully rendered details of North Caucasian landscapes and traditional familial connection, it’s set against the unmistakable backdrop of the post-Soviet world...Though set in the traditional confines of a largely Muslim North Caucasus, this divide is a microcosm for a very real wedge between two distinct generations in Russia today, a wedge that’s become a powerful force in struggles from music consumption and social media, to what the future of Russian politics will look like." —Nadia Beard The Calvert Journal

"Ganieva's writing has a kind of magic.” —Lauren Smart, Dallas Observer

"Much as they try, [the characters'] individual stories are mere fodder for the dysfunctional social order built on systemic corruption and terror." —Olga Zilberbourg, World Literature Today

From the Publisher