In Memory of Memory

An exploration of life at the margins of history from one of Russias most exciting contemporary writersShortlisted for the 2021 International Booker PrizeWinner of the MLA Lois Roth Translation AwardWith the death of her aunt, the narrator is left to sift through an apartment full of faded photographs, old postcards, letters, diaries, and heaps of souvenirs: a withered repository of a century of life in Russia. Carefully reassembled with calm, steady hands, these shards tell the story of how a seemingly ordinary Jewish family somehow managed to survive the myriad persecutions and repressions of the last century.In dialogue with writers like Roland Barthes, W. G. Sebald, Susan Sontag, and Osip Mandelstam, In Memory of Memory is imbued with rare intellectual curiosity and a wonderfully soft-spoken, poetic voice. Dipping into various formsessay, fiction, memoir, travelogue, and historical documentsStepanova assembles a vast panorama of ideas and personalities and offers an entirely new and bold exploration of cultural and personal memory.