Vladivostok circus
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Nathalie arrives at the Vladivostok circus, fresh out of fashion school in Geneva. She’s there to design the costumes for a trio of artists who are due to perform one of the most dangerous acts of all: the Russian Bar. As winter approaches, the season at Vladivostok is winding down, leaving the windy port city empty as the performers rush off to catch trains, boats and buses home; all except the Russian bar trio and their manager. They are scheduled to perform at a festival in Ulan Ude, just before Christmas. What ensues is an intimate and beguiling account of four people learning to work with and trust one another.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Aneesa
Abbas Higgins
Aneesa Abbas Higgins has translated books by Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Ali Zamir, and Nina Bouraoui. Seven Stones by Vénus Khoury-Ghata won the Scott Moncrieff Prize, and both A Girl Called Eel by Ali Zamir and What Became of the White Savage by François Garde won PEN Translates awards. Her translation of Elisa Shua Dusapin’s Winter in Sokcho won the 2021 National Book Award for Translation.
Aneesa Abbas Higgins has translated books by Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Ali Zamir, and Nina Bouraoui. Seven Stones by Vénus Khoury-Ghata won the Scott Moncrieff Prize, and both A Girl Called Eel by Ali Zamir and What Became of the White Savage by François Garde won PEN Translates awards. Her translation of Elisa Shua Dusapin’s Winter in Sokcho won the 2021 National Book Award for Translation.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Born in 1992 to a French father and a South Korean mother, Elisa Shua Dusapin grew up between Paris, Seoul and Porrentruy in Switzerland. In her laconic yet poetic language, she describes in her novel the strong cohesion and unconditional mutual trust in a group of artists from culturally different worlds. A very interesting setting in an unconventional novel by an author with international roots who lives in the French part of Switzerland.