Die Beschützerin

Literary expeditions
Reading and discussion with Sergei Lebedev, moderated by Ilija Trojanow

In many countries, we are seeing a return to a narrow understanding of culture that is mostly focused on one's own language or nation. The new "Literature Expeditions" series raises objections to this: under the permanent moderation of writer and translator Ilija Trojanow, it presents exciting, international and predominantly non-European

authors and shows the breadth and depth of world literature. The series starts with Sergei Lebedev; the subject of his novels is the Russian past, in particular the Stalin era and its consequences for modern Russia. Sergei Lebedev has lived in Potsdam since 2018. In his new novel "The Protector", translated by Franziska Zwerg,
he takes us to eastern Ukraine: July 2014 - debris and body parts fall onto the Ukrainian landscape of Donbass after the downing of passenger plane MH-17. Right here, underground, lie thousands of Jews who were murdered and thrown into mine tunnels during the Second World War. And it is here that the young student Shanna lives with her mother Marianna, the "protector", who was head of the laundry for thirty years. In disturbing, poetic images, Sergei Lebedev tells of the dirt that cannot be wiped away.
With the kind support of the CHRYSANTIL Foundation