Vyacheslav Kuritsyn

Shchaste. Nabokov v Berline letom 2026

HAPPINESS. Nabokov's Summer in Berlin 1926 Documentary non-fiction. Babel. Tel Aviv 2024. 80 pages

The book recounts the summer of 1926 as a standalone adventure. A close-up of Nabokov's life. Like a film where a single event, a single incident, is chosen instead of the biography of a historical figure. Important here: happiness in a situation of poverty, emigration, and an uncertain future.

The psychological starting point: A young writer has just published his first novel and married, enjoys great success in exile, considers himself a genius, and is convinced that his novel will soon be translated into every language and that he will regain the riches he lost in Russia. Therefore, he is happy despite his poverty. The paradox is that his plans will come true, but only thirty years later, something he doesn't yet know.

The author's aim was to create a book-object, a book-souvenir, which is facilitated by the small size and the collage method: very short chapters, many short quotations from letters and from the "Rul" chronicle (a Russian exile newspaper), scans from Russian newspapers, a magazine cover, credits from a German film, graphics by the author, etc.