The Orphanage (book)

The Orphanage (Інтернат, translit. Internat, lit. Boarding school) is a 2017 Ukrainian novel by Serhiy Zhadan. First published by Meridian Czernowitz in Chernivtsi, it follows a schoolteacher who crosses the front line in the War in Donbas to bring his nephew home from a residential school.[1][2] An English translation by Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler was published by Yale University Press in 2021.[2] The English translation won the EBRD Literature Prize in 2022.[3]

Reception

The English translation received positive reviews. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and later included it in its list of the 20 best fiction books of 2021.[4] Writing in Slavic Review, Tanya Zaharchenko described Internat as a "synchronous war novel", arguing that it emerged in close parallel with the ongoing war in Donbas.[5] In Asymptote, Kate Tsurkan argued that the book's apparently apocalyptic atmosphere was grounded in the lived reality of the war in eastern Ukraine.[6]

Awards

  • The Polish translation, by Michał Petryk, was a finalist for the Angelus Central European Literature Award in 2020.[7]
  • The German translation, by Sabine Stöhr and Jurij Durkot, won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize for translation in 2018.[8]

Synopsis

The novel centres on Pasha, a thirty-five-year-old Ukrainian teacher who travels through a combat zone to retrieve his nephew Sasha. The journey out and back takes him through shelled streets, checkpoints, stranded civilians and shifting lines of control.[2][9]

References

  1. ^ "The Orphanage / Internat". Suhrkamp Rights. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b c "The Orphanage". Yale University Press. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  3. ^ a b "The Orphanage wins the EBRD Literature Prize 2022". European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 13 June 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  4. ^ "Best Books 2021: Fiction". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  5. ^ Zaharchenko, Tanya (2019). "The Synchronous War Novel: Ordeal of the Unarmed Person in Serhiy Zhadan's Internat". Slavic Review. 78 (2): 410–429. doi:10.1017/slr.2019.95.
  6. ^ Tsurkan, Kate. "Kate Tsurkan reviews The Orphanage and A New Orthography by Serhiy Zhadan". Asymptote. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  7. ^ "Angelus 2020 – książki zakwalifikowane do finału". Angelus Award (in Polish). Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  8. ^ Kahlefendt, Nils (25 July 2024). "„Gute Bücher übersetzen ist leicht!"". Leipziger Buchmesse (in German). Retrieved 12 March 2026.
  9. ^ "The Orphanage". Publishers Weekly. 2 December 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2026.
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