The Funeral Party

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781474602051

Price: £9.99

Select a format:

ebook

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

‘Dazzling . . . [An] engrossing study of a vivacious personality slipping away’ THE TIMES

‘Rich in detail, elusive in meaning, light in touch’ MOSCOW TIMES

In a small apartment in New York, in the sweltering mid-summer heat, a group of Russian émigrés gather around the sickbed of an artist named Alik.

Nina, his wife, is desperate for Alik to be baptised; Irina, his ex-lover, a circus acrobat turned lawyer, quietly pays the bills; elderly Maria dispenses magical herbs; and Maika, Irina’s fifteen-year-old daughter, prepares to lose the only man to make her laugh.

As the visitors fuss and reminisce over Alik, in a corner of the crowded room the television shows the uprising outside the White House in Moscow and the tanks closing in on the city . . .

Reviews

Dazzling . . . [An] engrossing study of a vivacious personality slipping away
THE TIMES
Ultiskaya aims for the lyrical and builds her canvas like one of Alik's abstract paintings: rich in detail, elusive in meaning, light in touch
MOSCOW TIMES
I loved it . . . I read it in one sitting and was constantly surprised
Margaret Forster
One of the most important living Russian writers
Gary Shteyngart, author of SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY