Literature

Talk and Book Signing with Alhierd Bacharevič and Julia Cimafiejeva

(Mon 16 Mar: 7pm)

Hear what inspired Alhierd Bacharevič to write the award winning books Dogs of Europe, which when published in 2017 predicted a future war in Europe, and Alindarka's Children published by Scotland Street Press as a Scots-English language translation of the original which combined Belarusian and Russian within its text.

Alindarka’s Children is a tale about a Belarusian father, a Nationalist, who makes his daughter, Alicia, bear the responsibility for carrying out a Great Mission – preserving the Belarusian language from being replaced by Russian. Her father forbids Alicia to speak and think in Russian. In the English translation Belarusian language is translated into Scots, and Russian into English. The evening will include readings in Belarusian and Russian, Scots and English.

Dogs of Europe (2017) is a novel which describes a 21st century European War and its aftermath. It was developed into a stage play which has toured the world and had its UK Premiere in March 2022 at the Barbican with sell-out audiences.

More recently Alhierd has published, in German, the novel The Last Book of Mr. A. . It is a book that defies both clear interpretation and light reading, a highly creative, eruptive outcry against the clutches of post-Soviet existence.

Julia Cimfiejeva is a respected fluent English-speaking poet, who wrote a diary in 2020 which documented her participation in the 2020 protests against the fraudulent Presidential election in Belarus. Her protest diary and poems have been published in Motherfield: Poems and Belarusian Protest Diary, and there will be readings from that work in English.

Both authors will discuss the use of Belarusian language as defiance and literature as resistance. The evening will end with book signings and an opportunity to meet both authors, who are married to each other.

• Literature
• £10.00
• 16 March 2026
• 120 minutes
• 19:00
• Scottish Storytelling Centre
• Netherbow Theatre
• 12+