The Kukotsky Enigma

The Kukotsky Enigma (The Kukotsky Case)
Author Lyudmila Ulitskaya
Original title Казус Кукоцкого
Translator Diane Nemec Ignashev
Country United States
Language English
Genre Novel
Publisher Northwestern University Press
Publication date
August 2016
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 392 pp
ISBN 9780810133488

The Kukotsky Enigma (Russian: Казус Кукоцкого) is a novel by acclaimed[1] Russian novelist and public intellectual Lyudmila Ulitskaya. The Kukotsky Enigma won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize.[2] With five, Ulitskaya holds the record for the most nominations for that prestigious award. In 2005, a television series based on the novel by director Yuri Grymov was aired in Russia. Critics suggest that the book's focus on abortion offers a new reading of Stalinism through the lens of family life and the female body.[3]

Plot summary

The novel follows the life of the family of gynecologist Pavel Alekseevich Kukotsky. The story follows him from Stalin’s 1936 ban on abortions through the mid-1960s.

The novel consists of four parts. The first describes the life of the Kukotsky family members before the 1960s: his wife Helen, their adopted daughter Tatiana, a classmate Tanya, and a former nun living in Helen’s home. The second part is a dream Helen experiences while hovering between life and death. The third part covers the life of the family after 1960 and up to Tanya's death. The fourth part forms a brief epilogue.

Editions

References

  1. New Yorker link. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
  2. "Archive – 2001" (in Russian). Russian Booker Prize. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  3. Sutcliffe, Benjamin (2009). "Mother, Daughter, History: Embodying The Past In Liudmila Ulitskaia's Sonechka And The Case Of Kukotsky". The Slavic and East European Journal. 53 (4): 606–622. JSTOR 40651214.
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