HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (AP) – In the view of Nobel literature laureate Svetlana Alexievich, Russia is taking refuge in ideas from its Soviet past, but this nostalgia collides with newer, darker forces.
In an interview with The Associated Press at the Hay Festival of literature, the 68-year-old Alexievich assessed what she has learned from decades of talking with the ordinary people of the Soviet Union and the countries that emerged after its 1991 collapse.
Alexievich books are full of compelling voices that shout angrily, drone in despair and occasionally exult. Alexievich edits her interviews rigorously and crafts their disparate voices into a compelling vision of the human condition.
Her polyphonic reporting on what she calls “Red Civilization” won the 2015 literature prize in something of a departure for the Nobel committee, which usually honors poetry or fiction.
Her latest work, “Second-Hand Time,” recently published in English, describes the years since the Soviet collapse. What emerges from the voices across the post-Soviet world is bitter disappointment in wasted opportunities and broken promises.