Abejas grises / Grey Bees

About Abejas grises / Grey Bees

El nuevo libro del aclamado autor de «Muerte con pingüino»

Finalista en la categoría de traducciones del National Book Critics Circle Awards 2023

La conmovedora odisea de un apicultor entre dos bandos de la guerra, por Andréi Kurkov, «un Bulgákov contemporáneo. […] Un Murakami ucraniano» (The Guardian), «un Kafka postsoviético» (Daily Telegraph), «todo un clásico» (El País) traducido en sesenta y cinco países.

En Malaia Starogradovka, un pueblo de apenas tres calles en la zona gris  de Ucrania, la tierra de nadie disputada en 2014 entre las  fuerzas  ucranianas y los separatistas prorrusos, solo quedan dos residentes:  Serguéi Sergueich, inspector de seguridad retirado convertido en apicultor, y Pashka Jmelenko, amigo y rival suyo desde sus días de  escuela. Sin electricidad, con poca comida y con la constante amenaza de  los bombardeos, el único placer que le queda a Sergueich son sus abejas, adormiladas por el invierno. Con la llegada de la primavera, tendrá que  alejarlas de la zona gris para que puedan recolectar su polen en paz,  una misión que lo llevará a conocer a combatientes y civiles de ambos lados de la línea de batalla. Su bondad y su impecable brújula moral  irán desarmando a todos los que se crucen en su camino, convirtiendo la  salvación de sus abejas en una metáfora sobre la vida en tiempos de guerra.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Ukraine’s most famous novelist dramatizes the conflict raging in his country through the adventures of a mild-mannered beekeeper. From the author of the bestselling Death and the Penguin. 

A National Book Critics Circle Awards 2023 Translation Prize finalist. 

“A latter-day Bulgakov . . . A Ukrainian Murakami” -Phoebe Taplin, Guardian

Little Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in Ukraine’s Grey Zone, the no-man’s-land between loyalist and separatist forces. Thanks to the lukewarm war of sporadic violence and constant propaganda that has been dragging on for years,only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, a “frenemy” from his schooldays.

With little food and no electricity, under ever-present threat of bombardment, Sergeyich’s one remaining pleasure is his bees. As spring approaches, he knows he must take them far from the Grey Zone so they can collect their pollen in peace. This simple mission on their behalf introduces him to combatants and civilians on both sides of the battle lines: loyalists, separatists, Russian occupiers, and Crimean Tatars. Wherever he goes, Sergeyich’s childlike simplicity and strong moral compass disarm everyone he meets.

But could these qualities be manipulated to serve an unworthy cause, spelling disaster for him, his bees, and his country?

Grey Bees is as timely as the author’s Ukraine Diaries were in 2014, but treats the unfolding crisis in a more imaginative way, with a pinch of Kurkov’s signature humor. Who better than Ukraine’s most famous novelist -who writes in Russian -toilluminate and present a balanced portrait of this most bewildering of modern conflicts?