EUROPEAN LITERATURE NIGHT 2022
Wednesday, November 16
6 – 10 PM
Ukrainian Institute of America
2 E 79th St.
New York, NY, 10075
RSVP needed
European Literature Night brings some of Europe’s brightest literary talents to New York audiences. Critically acclaimed authors as well as translators and performers representing 11 E.U. countries will read excerpts from new works and beloved classics and engage in a panel discussion exploring the topic of literature and peace.
Estonian author Ilmar Taska will present his book Pobeda 1946: A Car Called Victory. In Tallinn in 1946, a young boy is transfixed by the beauty of a luxurious cream-colored car gliding down the street. It is a Russian Pobeda, a car called ‘Victory.’ The sympathetic driver invites the boy for a ride and inquires about his family. Soon the boy’s father disappears. Ilmar Taska’s novel captures the distrust and fear among Estonians living under Soviet occupation after World War II. “Taska brilliantly brings to the forefront the contradictions inherent in idealism, secrets, and nationality, showing the imminence of disaster that accompanies every pen stroke, every train ride, when one lives under the surveillance of a dictatorship.”
