The Zekameron by Maxim Znak
(Wed 1 Mar: 6pm)
Join Scotland Street Press and Libereco to celebrate the publication of Maxim Znak's The Zekameron.
This event is a chaired panel discussion with readings, questions and answers, and speakers from Scotland Street Press and the human rights organisation Libereco. Your ticket price includes a copy of The Zekameron which can be collected at the event.
Born in Minsk in 1981, international lawyer Maxim Znak was arrested in autumn 2020 and sentenced to ten years in prison in 2021. He is recognised by Amnesty as a prisoner of conscience. The 100 tales in The Zekameron are named after the 14th century collection The Decameron but Znak is closer to Beckett than to Boccaccio. Znak's stories in different voices chart 100 days in prison in Belarus today. The tone is laconic, ironic; the humour dry. The stories bear witness to resistance and self-assertion and the genuine warmth and appreciation of fellow prisoners. As with Solzhenitsyn’s ‘A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’; this is a powerful work of literature. There is no bitterness in it.
‘It’s a terse account of painful experience, prison, bewilderment; hugely atmospheric and extremely funny – full of dry wit and small biting observations. And what the book says about how we must write because speaking is too painful is so brilliantly drawn.’ (Anna Vaught)
A booking fee of £1.25 is charged per transaction for online and phone bookings. Your ticket price includes a copy of The Zekameron which can be collected at the event.
