HARD TIMES

Ostap Vyshnya, trans. Yuri Tkach (Glagoslav)

Ostap Vyshnia’s Hard Times, a collection of short stories and satire from 1920s Ukraine, took me by surprise upon reading. Hugely popular in his native land, this writer hadn’t previously heard of this Ukrainian satirist, but some of the cultural touchstones can be quite unfamiliar. Vyshnia’s short stories, however, maintain a sense of comedy and sincere awareness of real-life situations that translate across time and culture (no doubt attributable to Yuri Tkach’s translation, too) and gives a humorous insight into Soviet life and bureaucracy in the 1920s. While some of his stories rely on an understanding of the social and political context in which they were written, chapters such as Making Money are timelessly and effortlessly funny. It was a pleasure to read such simple, timeless and colourful satire. MP

Price: £18. Info: www.glagoslav.com