Ukrainian author Oleksii Nikitin will discuss and read from his novel От лица огня (Ukrainian title Бат-амi, English title The Face of Fire, 2021) in conversation with translator Catherine O'Neil and NYU Professor Olena Martynyuk.
This event is part of the class "Ukrainian Avant-Garde Cinema and Literature," taught by Visiting Professor Olena Martynyuk of the NYU Russian and Slavic Studies Department.
About the Novel.
Oleksii Nikitin’s most recent novel, The Face of Fire, presents a moving panorama of Ukrainian life during World War II. It focuses on a young, Jewish Red Army soldier, Ilya Goldinov and his family in the city of Kyiv before, during and after the Nazi occupation. In 1941, Ilya Goldinov was the heavyweight boxing champion of Ukraine and was scheduled to compete for champion of the Soviet Union. Although Ilya is a secular urban Jew, his wife Feliksa comes from a peasant family in the Ukrainian countryside. The story depicts their life with their young daughter, Jewish life in Kyiv at the start of the war, Kyiv’s Dynamo sports teams, NKVD agents, the Red Army, and life in the German POW camps. The novel is based on historical documents and the author’s family archives.
“If I had to find the closest analogy to Nikitin’s novel it would be Vasilii Grossman’s Life and Fate. The Face of Fire is equally epic in scope, complex, and heroic and gripping at the same time…. And it is particularly noteworthy that this novel was written about Ukraine and from Ukraine, although before the current war. Which is why there is much less cruelty in it, and more sorrow and empathy than there would be today.”
--- Galina Yuzefovich, Meduza
“Oleksii Nikitin’s novel The Face of Fire is based on a wide range of historical documents, including formerly classified archival materials. Written in powerful and precise prose, it conveys great care and sympathy for its characters and their prototypes.”
--- Hanna Uliura, The Village
About the Author
Oleksii Nikitin was born in Kyiv in 1967. After completing his degree in physics at the University of Kyiv and his army service he established his own company in 1992 and worked on different projects for the Ukrainian oil, chemical, and atomic industries. In 2002 Niktin closed his business operations and worked for several years as an IT journalist. Afterwards he dedicated himself completely to his literary activities and has since published several novels: Istemi (2011), Madzhong (2012), Victory Park (2013) Sanitar s Institutskoi (2016), and, most recently, Ot litsa ognia (2021). He has received several literary awards and is one of the most prominent Russian-language writers in Ukraine today. Oleksii Nikitin lives in Kyiv. Istemi was published in English under the title Y.T. (2013). Ot litsa ognia will come out in English as The Face of Fire in 2024.
This event will be hosted in person only in the NYU Silver Center, Room 407. Non-NYU affiliates must RSVP to attend.