Secondhand Time

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Una historia oral sinfónica sobre la desintegración de la Unión Soviética y el surgimiento de una nueva Rusia, de Svetlana Alexievich, ganadora del Premio Nobel de Literatura

NOMBRADA UNA DE LAS DIEZ LOS MEJORES LIBROS DEL AÑO POR WASHINGTON POST Y EDITORES SEMANALES • GANADOR DEL PREMIO DEL LIBRO DE LOS ANGELES TIMES

NOMBRADO UNO DE LOS MEJORES LIBROS DEL AÑO POR

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Cuando la Academia Sueca otorgó a Svetlana Alexievich el Premio Nobel, la citó por inventar "un nuevo tipo de género literario", describiendo su trabajo como "una historia de emociones, una historia del alma". El estilo documental distintivo de Alexievich, que combina monólogos individuales extendidos con un collage de voces, registra las historias de mujeres y hombres comunes a quienes rara vez se les da la oportunidad de hablar, cuyas experiencias a menudo se pierden en las historias oficiales de la nación.

Un magnífico tapiz de los dolores y triunfos del espíritu humano tejido por un maestro, cuenta Secondhand Time. las historias que juntas componen la verdadera historia de una nación. "A través de las voces de quienes confiaron en ella", escribe The Nation, "Alexievich nos habla sobre la naturaleza humana, sobre nuestros sueños, nuestras elecciones, sobre el bien y el mal, en una palabra, sobre nosotros mismos".

IDIOMA ORIGINAL

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A symphonic oral history about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia, from Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY • LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY

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When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions—a history of the soul.” Alexievich’s distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation.

In Secondhand Time, Alexievich chronicles the demise of communism. Everyday Russian citizens recount the past thirty years, showing us what life was like during the fall of the Soviet Union and what it’s like to live in the new Russia left in its wake. Through interviews spanning 1991 to 2012, Alexievich takes us behind the propaganda and contrived media accounts, giving us a panoramic portrait of contemporary Russia and Russians who still carry memories of oppression, terror, famine, massacres—but also of pride in their country, hope for the future, and a belief that everyone was working and fighting together to bring about a utopia. Here is an account of life in the aftermath of an idea so powerful it once dominated a third of the world.

A magnificent tapestry of the sorrows and triumphs of the human spirit woven by a master, Secondhand Time tells the stories that together make up the true history of a nation. “Through the voices of those who confided in her,” The Nation writes, “Alexievich tells us about human nature, about our dreams, our choices, about good and evil—in a word, about ourselves.”