Nadezhda in the Dark - by Yelena Moskovitch (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A stunning, novel-in-verse exploration of LGBTQ+ life in the shadow of the former Soviet bloc

On the longest night of a milk-dark Berlin winter, a doomed couple sit side by side on their bed. Both fled the Soviet Union as children, the narrator from Ukraine, and her girlfriend from Russia.

The lights are off. Neither speak.

In their silence, a century of Ukrainian and Russian history resurfaces: forgotten literary characters, Yiddish maxims, contraband jokes, LGBT life in the post-Soviet bloc, Jewish diaspora to Israel, beauty vlogs, shaken sanity, hidden messages in Russian pop music, resistance in Odessa, Moscow club raids, and the death of a beloved friend.

The requiem inside the narrator's head circles the question pinned within the darkness: What does it mean to hold onto Nadezhda, whose name means "hope"? And is holding it enough?

Review Quotes

"Elegant and erudite, Nadezhda in the Dark is a remarkable tapestry of longing, humor and hope that spans across time and borders. Unlike anything I've read on the complexities of post-Soviet identity."

-Sasha Vasilyuk, author of Sami Rohr Prize winner Your Presence Is Mandatory

"Nadezhda in the Dark is the queer post-Soviet novel-in-verse you didn't know you desperately needed. It's as darkly funny, meditative, and bold as you'd expect for a book full of lines like, 'I'm a war-child with no war.'" -Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy

"Yelena Moskovich writes like Anne Carson walks into a bar, asks Marguerite Duras for her number and Freud for his couch. A Ukrainian in America, an American in Paris, and never quite still - except when writing. Nadezhda in the Dark is a novel of such static movement: exile and ennui, rhythm and fracture, broken tongues that French kiss."

-Alice Pfeiffer, journalist and author of Le Goût du Moche and Je Ne Suis Pas Parisienne

"This book felt like staying up all night talking with somebody I just met but who could somehow see inside of me. It gave voice to the particular thrum of immigrant longing that I feel under everything but have trouble putting into words. The shrapnel from being a former soviet. A meditation on the three untranslatable words--sudba, dusha, toska."

-Katya Apekina, author of Mother Doll and The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish

"Brimming with references from Russian and Ukrainian literatures to Alla Pugacheva and the Moscow 1990s gay club scene, Nadezhda in the Dark is a poetic disquisition on global history and self-identity. Discussions of Soviet anti-Semitism and the war in Ukraine merge with explorations of immigration and queer love. In language simultaneously lyrical and sharp, Moskovich shows how the personal and political, the present and past, are inextricably linked in ways that are often traumatic but also occasionally hopeful."

-Yelena Furman, co-founder of Punctured Lines

"Moskovich is a sorcerer. I'm obsessed, fascinated by the magic she weaves with her words. Nadezhda in the Dark, a story of the worlds within a moment; the humanity, the terror, the history, the life that exists in the space between two people. Moskovich's writing is the labyrinth I want to get lost in."

-Jethro Massey, filmmaker, Paul & Paulette Take a Bath

"Visceral, numinous, virtuosic, Moskovich's Nadezhda in the Dark explores intimacy, exile and the intricacy, ecstasy and fallout of falling in love. Two young women's stories and histories merge and diverge, collide and cross over in a novel of deeply lyrical free verse whose subjects range from identity to war to family to longing for and belonging to a culture and country--or not. The speaker says, 'You need darkness / to be loved' and we also need the illuminate light of this book. In haunting, luminous language that is as seamless as it is sinuous, Nadezhda in the Dark is a literary event not be missed."

-Heather Hartley, Former Paris Editor for Tin House Magazine, author of Adult Swim and Knock Knock

"Lovers in exile reckon with the weight of history over the course of one winter's night in Berlin. ... A lyrical, sinuous exploration of queer love and diasporic grief."-Kirkus Reviews"Elegant and erudite, Nadezhda in the Dark is a remarkable tapestry of longing, humor and hope that spans across time and borders. Unlike anything I've read on the complexities of post-Soviet identity."-Sasha Vasilyuk, author of Sami Rohr Prize winner Your Presence Is Mandatory"Nadezhda in the Dark is the queer post-Soviet novel-in-verse you didn't know you desperately needed. It's as darkly funny, meditative, and bold as you'd expect for a book full of lines like, 'I'm a war-child with no war.'" -Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy"Yelena Moskovich writes like Anne Carson walks into a bar, asks Marguerite Duras for her number and Freud for his couch. A Ukrainian in America, an American in Paris, and never quite still - except when writing. Nadezhda in the Dark is a novel of such static movement: exile and ennui, rhythm and fracture, broken tongues that French kiss." -Alice Pfeiffer, journalist and author of Le Goût du Moche and Je Ne Suis Pas Parisienne"This book felt like staying up all night talking with somebody I just met but who could somehow see inside of me. It gave voice to the particular thrum of immigrant longing that I feel under everything but have trouble putting into words. The shrapnel from being a former soviet. A meditation on the three untranslatable words--sudba, dusha, toska." -Katya Apekina, author of Mother Doll and The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish"Brimming with references from Russian and Ukrainian literatures to Alla Pugacheva and the Moscow 1990s gay club scene, Nadezhda in the Dark is a poetic disquisition on global history and self-identity. Discussions of Soviet anti-Semitism and the war in Ukraine merge with explorations of immigration and queer love. In language simultaneously lyrical and sharp, Moskovich shows how the personal and political, the present and past, are inextricably linked in ways that are often traumatic but also occasionally hopeful."-Yelena Furman, co-founder of Punctured Lines"The Iliad for post-Soviet Jewish dykes..Moskovich's voice commands our attention as it tells--breathlessly, passionately, mixing humor with earnestness--a story about two women whose Soviet roots both unite them and make their relationship impossible. Emotional pitch in this book is turned all the way up! I loved it."-Olga Zilberbourg, co-founder of Punctured Lines and author of Like Water and Other Stories "Moskovich is a sorcerer. I'm obsessed, fascinated by the magic she weaves with her words. Nadezhda in the Dark, a story of the worlds within a moment; the humanity, the terror, the history, the life that exists in the space between two people. Moskovich's writing is the labyrinth I want to get lost in."-Jethro Massey, filmmaker, Paul & Paulette Take a Bath"Yelena Moskovich has given the world a piece of literature so intimate, honest and devastating that it's nearly impossible to read it in more than one sitting. Nadezhda in the Dark brings us into the quiet bedroom of a relationship at its reckoning - and yet, always, there remains a soft beacon of light. Moskovich's language and refined form in Nadezhda in the Dark is demonstrative of her skill as an artist, bending time stanza to stanza with such deftness that telescopes the reader deeply into the introspection of a self-aware, wise narrator, who describes her experiences in mental health, suicidal ideation, and her identity as an LGBTQ Slavic woman searching for a homeland; then within a beat in effortless transition, take us into the sweeping tragedy of Jewish-Ukrainian history, folklore, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Moskovich balances a biting, dark fatalistic humor with an acute yearning, a desperation for something, or someone to hold onto."-Kalani Pickhart, author of I Will Die in a Foreign Land"'You need darkness/ to be loved' and in Nadezhda in the Dark, the darkness is revelatory and unyielding. Moskovich beautifully takes the reader on a deep and intimate dive through the history of queer erasure and violence in the Soviet Union, family, storytelling, and love through the lens of post-Soviet identity in this stunning lyric novel."-Luisa Muradyan, author of I Make Jokes When I'm Devastated"Visceral, numinous, virtuosic, Moskovich's Nadezhda in the Dark explores intimacy, exile and the intricacy, ecstasy and fallout of falling in love. Two young women's stories and histories merge and diverge, collide and cross over in a novel of deeply lyrical free verse whose subjects range from identity to war to family to longing for and belonging to a culture and country--or not. The speaker says, 'You need darkness / to be loved' and we also need the illuminate light of this book. In haunting, luminous language that is as seamless as it is sinuous, Nadezhda in the Dark is a literary event not be missed."-Heather Hartley, Former Paris Editor for Tin House Magazine, author of Adult Swim and Knock Knock