Dr. Leonardo’s Journey to Sloboda Switzerland with his Future Lover, the Beautiful Alcesta
Dr. Leonardo’s Journey to Sloboda Switzerland with his Future Lover, the Beautiful Alcesta (Подорож ученого доктора Леонардо і його майбутньої коханки прекрасної Альчести у Слобожанську Швайцарію)
Author: Maik Yohansen
Translator: Uilleam Blacker
Translation: Ukrainian to English
Italian doctor Leonardo Pazzi and Alcesta, his “future lover,” travel through the picturesque, hilly region of Sloboda, near Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, and experience a series of encounters with local Ukrainians and nature itself, with disappearances and transformations that are filled with paradoxes and unmotivated twists. This contemporary English translation of Maik Yohansen’s novel is ideal for readers interested in discovering the richness of Ukrainian modernism. In 1937, in a wave of Stalinist purges of Ukraine’s intelligentsia, the author was executed at age 42 in the NKVD’s Lukyanivka Prison in Kyiv. Yohansen’s book was added to PEN-Ukraine’s list of 100 Notable Books.