Tango of Death (novel)
| Author | Yuriy Vynnychuk |
|---|---|
| Original title | Танґо смерті |
| Translator | Michael M. Naydan Olha Tytarenko |
| Language | Ukrainian |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Set in | Lviv (interwar and Second World War; contemporary frame narrative) |
| Publisher | Folio, Spuyten Duyvil (English translation) |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Publication place | Ukraine |
Published in English | 2019 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 469 (English edition) |
| Awards | BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year (2012) |
| ISBN | 978-1-949966-33-6 |
| OCLC | 1104856874 |
Tango of Death is a Ukrainian historical novel by Yuriy Vynnychuk. It was first published in 2012 by Folio and received the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year award for 2012.[1]
Review and reception
Announcing the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year award, juror Vira Ageyeva highlighted the novel’s combination of a dramatic storyline with historical detail and its movement between comic and tragic tones.[1] In a 2019 Angelus report, juror Piotr Śliwiński described the Polish edition as unexpectedly engrossing and as presenting a perspective on Lviv different from familiar nostalgic treatments of the city. In an interview with Der Standard, Vynnychuk discussed the novel’s Lviv setting in relation to the wartime destruction of the city’s prewar multicultural life and the Holocaust in the region.[2]
The English translation has also been examined in translation-studies scholarship: a 2021 peer-reviewed case study in SHS Web of Conferences analyzed students’ responses to the novel in Ukrainian and in its English translation.[3]
Awards and nominations
- BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year (2012).[4]
References
- ^ a b "BBC Book prize winners in partnership with EBRD Cultural Programme". European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2026.
- ^ Stimeder, Klaus (19 February 2023). "Ukrainian writer Yuri Vynnychuk: "These people are from another planet"". Der Standard. Retrieved 17 January 2026.
- ^ Perminova Perminova, Alla (2021). "Reception of literary works in the original and translation. A case study: Students´ response". SHS Web of Conferences. 105: 01005. doi:10.1051/shsconf/202110501005.
- ^ "Yuri Vynnychuk and Lesya Voronyna win the BBC Ukrainian book awards". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2026.