Monika Zgustova

A captivating, nuanced portrait of the life of V ra Nabokov, who dedicated herself to advancing her husband's writing career, playing a vital role in the creation of his greatest works. V ra Nabokov (1902-1991) was in many ways the epitome of the wife of a great man: keenly aware of her husband's extraordinary talent, she decided to make his success her ultimate goal, throughout fifty-two years of marriage until his death in 1977. The first reader of his texts, V ra worked as typist and editor. She organized their lives in exile, as they traveled to Berlin, Paris, Switzerland, and, most importantly, the US, where she convinced Vladimir to focus on writing novels in English. She not only controlled the family's finances and contract negotiations, but also attempted to control his friendships--particularly with women--going so far as to audit his classes. In a rich, sweeping novel, Monika Zgustova immerses us in the daily life of this remarkable couple, offering insights into their complex personal and professional relationships. V ra considered herself an independent woman, but was she really, when her husband took up so much space? And without V ra, could Nabokov have become one of the twentieth century's greatest writers?

A poignant and unexpectedly inspirational account of women's suffering and resilience in Stalin's forced labor camps, diligently transcribed in the kitchens and living rooms of nine survivors. The pain inflicted by the gulags has cast a long and dark shadow over Soviet-era history. Zgustov 's collection of interviews with former female prisoners not only chronicles the hardships of the camps, but also serves as testament to the power of beauty in face of adversity. Where one would expect to find stories of hopelessness and despair, Zgustov has unearthed tales of the love, art, and friendship that persisted in times of tragedy. Across the Soviet Union, prisoners are said to have composed and memorized thousands of verses. Galya Sanova, born in a Siberian gulag, remembers reading from a hand-stitched copy of Little Red Riding Hood. Irina Emelyanova passed poems to the male prisoner she had grown to love. In this way, the arts lent an air of humanity to the women's brutal realities. These stories, collected in the vein of Svetlana Alexievich's Nobel Prize-winning oral histories, turn one of the darkest periods of the Soviet era into a song of human perseverance, in a way that reads as an intimate family history.

A rapturous novel of love, longing, and exile, "The Silent Woman" depicts a twentieth century woman's life against a backdrop of war and political turmoil. Sylva, half Czech and half German, is born into an aristocratic family and lives in a castle outside Prague. She marries a man she doesn't love and is seduced by the joyful madness of Paris in the 1920s as an ambassador's wife. When the Nazis force her to state her loyalty, she capitulates, not realizing how this decision will inform and haunt the rest of her life. Sylva's story is interwoven with a contemporary sex chronicle of her son Jan, a world-renowned mathematician and emigre living in the United States, who exudes the restlessness of a man without a country. Monika Zgustova was born in Prague and lives in Barcelona. She has published seven books, including novels, short stories, a play, and a biography. "La muier silenciosa" ("The Silent Woman," 2005) was a finalist for the National Award for the Novel, given by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Zgustova has translated more than fifty books of Russian and Czech fiction and poetry, including the works of Milan Kundera, Anna Akhmatova, and Vaclav Havel, into Spanish and Catalan. Norman Manea is a Romanian writer and the author of "The Hooligan's Return," as well as many other award-winning books. He is the Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer-in-residence at Bard College.

The Duchess of Alba, known as Goya's muse, recalls the passions of youth on her deathbed in the royal court of eighteenth-century Madrid. A young woman defies the protocols of her arranged marriage and pursues love--and the life of a published writer--until her readers condemn her as a danger to society in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nina Berberova escapes persecution during the Russian Revolution and flees to Paris, where the intelligentsia naively covet the promise of a Soviet Union. These three women attempt to find passion and intimacy in worlds that rarely accommodate female desire. "Goya's Glass" is an unforgettable novel of guilty pleasures coursing through history. Monika Zgustova was born in Prague and lives in Barcelona, Spain. She has published seven books, including novels, short stories, a play, and a biography. Her novel "The Silent Woman" was a runner-up for the National Award for the Novel, given by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Zgustova has also received the Ciutat de Barcelona and the Merce Rodoreda awards in Spain, and the Gratias Agit Award given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague. She has translated more than fifty books of Russian and Czech fiction and poetry, including the works of Milan Kundera and Vaclav Havel, into both Spanish and Catalan.