Bride and Groom - by Alisa Ganieva (Paperback)

About the Book

A multilayered, magical story of love and fate as two modern city-dwellers grapple with traditional family expectations to find happiness.

Book Synopsis

A multilayered, magical story of love and fate as two modern city-dwellers grapple with traditional family expectations to find happiness.

Review Quotes

Longlisted for the Read Russia 2020 Prize

Runner-up for 2015 Russian Booker Prize

"A bold and startling novel." -Viv Groskop, The Guardian

"The book is wonderfully transportive, and while full of beautifully rendered details of North Caucasian landscapes and traditional familial connection, it's set against the unmistakable backdrop of the post-Soviet world...Though set in the traditional confines of a largely Muslim North Caucasus, this divide is a microcosm for a very real wedge between two distinct generations in Russia today, a wedge that's become a powerful force in struggles from music consumption and social media, to what the future of Russian politics will look like." -Nadia Beard The Calvert Journal

"Ganieva's writing has a kind of magic." -Lauren Smart, Dallas Observer

"Much as they try, [the characters'] individual stories are mere fodder for the dysfunctional social order built on systemic corruption and terror." -Olga Zilberbourg, World Literature Today

About the Author

Alisa Ganieva, born in 1985, grew up in Makhachkala, the capital of the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, wedged between the Caspian Sea, Chechnya, and Azerbaijan. Her literary debut, the novella Salaam, Dalgat!, published under a male pseudonym, provoked contradictory reactions in Russia: astonishment, especially among young Russians, at this unknown part of their country; and anger among radical Islamists at this negative portrayal of their homeland by one of their own. Salaam, Dalgat! won the prestigious Debut Prize in 2009, and Ganieva revealed her true identity only at the award ceremony. Ganieva's debut novel, The Mountain and the Wall, was shortlisted for all three of Russia's major literary awards, Deep Vellum published it in English in 2015, marking the first novel ever published in English by a Dagestani author. Bride and Groom was published in Russia in 2015 and was the runner-up for Russia's most prestigious literary award, the Russian Booker Prize. Ganieva's novels have been translated into a dozen languages. She lives in Moscow, where she works as a cultural journalist and literary critic.

Dr. Carol Apollonio is Professor of the Practice of Russian at Duke University. Her most recent literary translations include German Sadulaev's The Maya Pill (Dalkey Archive, 2014) and Alisa Ganieva's debut novel, The Mountain and the Wall (Deep Vellum, 2015). In addition to being an accomplished translator, Dr. Apollonio is also a scholar specializing in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Chekhov and on problems of translation. She is the author of the monograph Dostoevsky's Secrets (2009), and she has edited volumes and numerous articles on nineteenth century Russian literature. She was awarded the Russian Ministry of Culture's Chekhov Medal in 2010, and she currently serves as President of the North American Dostoevsky Society.