Overview

A captivating and original street-level account of a vexing and troubled region. In the tradition of Barbara Demick and Katherine Boo, Black Square presents an evocative, multidimensional portrait of post-Soviet life under the shadow of Putin. In vivid, original prose, Sophie Pinkham draws us into the fascinating lives of her contemporaries - a generation that came of age after the fall of the USSR, only to see protestors shot on Kiev's main square, Maidan; Crimea annexed by Russia; and a bitter war in eastern Ukraine. Amid the rubble, Pinkham tells stories that convey a youth culture flourishing amid the rubble of a tragically corrupt state. We meet a charismatic, drug-addicted doctor helping to smooth the transition to democracy, a Bolano-esque art gallerist prone to public nudity, and a Russian Jewish clarinetist agitating for Ukrainian liberation. With deep knowledge of Slavic literature and a keen, outsider's eye for the dark absurdity of post-Soviet society, Pinkham delivers an indelible impression of a country, and a world, on the brink.

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9780434023523

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Reviews

Black Square is a remarkable historical memoir: humane, shocking and full of brilliant insight. Sophie Pinkham never succumbs to easy judgement. Her book is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the tragic and dangerous confrontation between Ukraine and Russia. -- Rachel Polonsky, author of 'Molotov's Magic Lantern' An empathetic and deeply humanising look at troubled times and dangerous, revolutionary days. -- Peter Pomerantsev, author of 'Nothing is True and Everything is Possible' Black Square is as elegant, suggestive, ominous, beautiful, and deceptively simple as, well, a black square. Perhaps the only thing more impressive than the sheer number and diversity of people Sophie Pinkham has spoken to is how deftly she has woven their stories into a single compulsively readable narrative. -- Elif Batuman, author of 'The Possessed' Essential reading. What makes Black Square superb, to my mind, is Pinkham's keen eye for the dark comedy and tragedy that mark so many of her subjects. Her portraits of individual Ukrainians and Russians are as rich and nuanced as her synthesis of their national histories and politics. The result is a book whose literary achievement will outlast its timeliness. -- Anthony Marra, author of 'A Constellation of Vital Phenomena' Sophie Pinkham is a wry, erudite observer of human foibles, political illusions, and funny hats. In Ukraine and its complex and tragic confrontation with Russia (and itself), she has found the perfect subject. Anyone who wants an explanation of Ukraine's recent history that goes beyond Kremlin propaganda and Western media oversimplification should read this book. -- Keith Gessen, translator of 'Voices from Chernobyl'

Author Information

Sophie Pinkham lives in New York. Her writing on Russia and Ukraine has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, n+1, the London Review of Books and Foreign Affairs, among other publications.

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