This event was one of Svetlana Alexievich’s few UK public appearances in 2016. She discussed her new book Second-hand Time, translated by Bela Shayevich (Fitzcarraldo Editions, May 2016), and the new edition of Chernobyl Prayer, translated by Anna Gunin and Arch Tait (Penguin Classics, April 2016), to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Themes of memory, trust, family secrets and of course the disintegration of the Soviet Union emerged over the course of a fascinating discussion between Svetlana Alexievich and James Meek, interpreted beautifully by Masha Karp.
PEN Transmissions 