Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Lyudmila Ulitskaya (1943) is one of the best known Russian authors internationally and has won several awards; she is the first woman to win the prestigious Russian Booker Prize (in 2001 for her novel Kukotsky’s Case). Ulitskaya’s extensive stories deal with metaphysical, psychological and social issues, focussing on the life of Russian-Jewish intellectuals in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. Although Ulitskaya’s works lack a single theme that guides her plots and characters, her work nevertheless seems to carry some general impulse that connects and elevates people. A spirit that has manifested itself in the works of many greats of Russian literature like Dostoyevsky or Pasternak and gives her voice a particularly convincing quality. In her novel Imago, Ulitskaya speaks about ‘world sentimentality’, referring to the supernatural core of human life which incomprehensibly becomes natural, sensed more with intuition than intellect. The most important issues like faith, justice and death reflect a greater aim: longing for intimacy and understanding. This longing presents a chance to overcome the physical, political or religious conflicts and boundaries between people. Ulitskaya’s heros take shape in the spirit of this longing.

Lyudmila Ulitskaya will visit Estonia as a special event of festival HeadRead on 11 September 2015. She will talk to translator Ilona Martson at 6 p.m. at the Estonian Writers’ Union. The conversation will have simultaneous translation into Estonian.