| Posmotri na nego |
Look at Him. Documentary novel. Corpus. Moscow 2017. 190 pages |
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Foreign rights:
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Latvia/ Janis Rose, Spain/ Impedimenta, US/ Three String Press |
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Awards:
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2021 among Best Books of the Year (chosen by LatvEl País, TELVA, ELLE,
Esquire, Forbes) |
In this groundbreaking memoir, Starobinets chronicles the devastating loss of her unborn son to a fatal birth defect.
After her son’s death, Starobinets suffers from nightmares and panic attacks; the memoir describes her struggle to find sympa- thy, community, and psychological support for herself and her family. A finalist for the 2018 National Bestseller Prize, Look at Him ignited a firestorm in Russia, prompting both high praise and severe condemnation for the author’s willingness to discuss long-taboo issues of women’s agency over their own bodies, the afteref- fects of abortion and miscarriage on marriage and family life, and the callousness and ignorance displayed by many in Russia in situations like hers.
Beautiful, darkly humorous, and deeply moving, Look at Him explores moral, ethical – and quintes- sentially human – issues that resonate for families in the world beyond Russia, as well. This is in some way a survival guide for those who find themselves in the face of a grief that seems unbearable.
