Rána – Vasjakinová Oksana (2023)

Rána is the prose debut of poet Oksana Vasjakinová. It is a documentary, autobiographical text that revolves around the narrator's journey with her mother's ashes from the Volgograd region to her native Siberia. From Volgograd to Moscow, from Moscow to Novosibirsk and Irkutsk by plane with layovers, and then fourteen hours by bus through the taiga to the town of Usť-Ilimsk, where all roads seem to end. This long route forms the skeleton of the novel, around which the narrative about death, dying, and farewells accompanied by absurd bureaucracy is centered. The journey to her homeland is also a journey towards understanding her own sexuality, femininity, and how to speak about these topics today. The author reflects on a number of her predecessors, including the avant-gardist Jelena Gurová and the camp writer Anna Barkovová, among others. Novelistic passages intertwine with essayistic ones, the present with the past. With its interest in family memory, the novel is close to the prose of Russian poet and essayist Marija Stěpanovová's 'Památce paměti' (Pamjati pamjati 2017, Czech 2021), and by blending the intimate world with reflections on literature and art, it resonates with the prose of British writer Olivia Laing. Vasjakinová received the NOS literary award for Rána (2021).