Irina Zhorov was born in Uzbekistan, in the Soviet Union, and moved to Philadelphia on the eve of its dissolution. After failing to make use of a geology degree she received an MFA from the University of Wyoming. She’s worked as a journalist for more than a decade, reporting primarily on environmental issues.
Her new novel is Lost Believers.
At Electric Lit Zhorov tagged eight books that reckon with the complicated legacy of the USSR, including:
Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Boris DralyukRead about the other entries on the list.
Sergey Sergeyich is a beekeeper living in a conflict zone in the Donbas region of Ukraine, where electricity has been off for years but shelling is relentless. When he decides to flee his home with his bees, he ends up in another conflict area, in Crimea. Along the way, he gets an education on Russian aggression, ethnic persecution and the cruelties of human nature. Russian violence in Ukraine has been a post-Soviet constant and this novel shows its effects on just a few lives.
Grey Bees is among Kalani Pickhart's eight books to better understand Ukraine, past & present.
--Marshal Zeringue
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