Dialogue with Life and Time: Svetlana Alexievich

The anniversary book exhibition "Dialogue with life and time", dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Svetlana Alexievich, the Belarusian writer, Nobel Prize winner in literature of 2015 for "polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time", is held in the Belarusian Literature reading room (room 205) from May 8 to June 6.

The Svetlana Alexievich’s books are known not only in Belarus. They are published in the USA, Germany, England, Japan, Sweden, China, India and other countries. As the critic Lev Anninsky said: "Her books are a living story told by the people themselves, and recorded, heard, chosen by a talented and truthful chronicler". The writer is a laureate of many literary prizes, including international ones: the Kurt Tucholsky Prize (1996, Sweden), the Nobel Peace Prize (2001, Germany), the Best Book of the Year Award (2013, France) and others.

As a journalist Svetlana Alexievich tried herself in the genres of reportage, article, story. The decisive influence on the writer's choice of documentary and artistic genre was rendered by Ales Adamovich, one of the authors of the publications "Out of Fire" and "A Book of the Blockade". Svetlana Alexievich began her creative work from this genre.

The writer became famous after her documentary book " The Unwomanly Face of War " (U voyny ne zhenskoe litso), which tells about the feat of women front-line soldiers, partisans and undergrounders during the Great Patriotic War. Svetlana Alexievich wrote also a play according to her book (staged in 1985 in many theaters of the country and abroad) and scenarios of the cycle of documentary films with the same title directed by V. Dashuk (awarded the USSR State Prize in 1985 and the Silver Dove Prize at the International Film Festival in Leipzig). The continuation of the military theme was the book of childhood memories "The Last Witnesses: A Hundred of Unchildlike Lullabys" (Poslednie svideteli), written in the Belarusian language.

It will be of interesting for visitors to see the artist-documentary cycle by Svetlana Alexievich "Voices of Utopia", which compiled the books " The Unwomanly Face of War ", "The last witnesses", " Zinky Boys ", "Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future " and "Second-hand time". The last book’s theme is the Great Patriotic War, Afghanistan, Chernobyl, "perestroika" period and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

At the exhibition there are also the books translated to belarusian. There are also numerous translations of Alexievich’s works to French, Spanish, English, Swedish, German, Chinese, Ukrainian and other languages.

There are also the books about the life and work of the writer.

The opening hours of the exhibition corresponds to the library’s opening hours.

Entrance to the exhibition is available by the library ticket or ticket of the library's social and cultural center.