To celebrate Bookweek 2023 (March 11 – 19) Mayflower Bookshop is proud to welcome Maxim Osipov on Sunday March 12 for an interview on his recently published book Kilometer 101, followed by a signing session.
In March 2022, after criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian author and cardiologist Maxim Osipov fled Russia. First to Armenia (where Russians can go without a visa), followed by a flight to Berlin where he spent three months. Since last September he is guest lecturer at Leiden University, teaching a course on Russian short stories. Osipov won several literary prizes for his work in Russia, and his short stories, novellas, essays and plays have been translated into over a dozen languages including English and Dutch.
Kilometer 101, his new new collection of short stories and sketches is still gaining daily urgency. Deception, political pressure, discrimination, poverty and booze, ubiquitous corruption, the increasing need to emigrate and the fear of leaving one’s home, as well as generational conflicts, are woven into this work in the same way that they are woven into the lives of Osipov’s fellow Russians. The 101st kilometre (Russian: 101-й километр, sto pervyy kilometr) is a colloquial phrase for restrictions on freedom of movement in the Soviet Union.
Mayflower Bookshop will interview Osipov on his reasons for his flight from Russia, his visiting lectureship and naturally on his previous work and on Kilometer 101.
Don’t want to miss this opportunity? Please book your reservation if you want to be seated! Send an email to freek@mayflowerbookshop.nl by Wednesday March 8th at the latest.
Sunday March 12, 2023, 16.00. Mayflower Bookshop, Breestraat 70, Leiden. Admission: free.
Photo: Yolanda Bloemen
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