- 562 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
From a Man Booker International Prize nominee, "a century of tangled Russian family history in [a] lucid saga . . .a challenging yet rewarding epic." ?
Publishers Weekly
"Ulitskaya continues the tradition of prerevolutionary Russian literature and demonstrates why she's one of the most popular novelists in today's Russia." –
The New York Times.
Jumping between the diaries and letters of Jacob Ossetsky in Kiev in the early 1900s and the experiences of his granddaughter Nora in the theatrical world of Moscow in the 1970s and beyond,
Jacob's Ladder guides the reader through some of the most turbulent times in the history of Russia and Ukraine, and draws suggestive parallels between historical events of the early twentieth century and those of more recent memory.
Spanning the seeming promise of the prerevolutionary years, to the dark Stalinist era, to the corruption and confusion of the present day,
Jacob's Ladder is a pageant of romance, betrayal, and memory. With a scale worthy of Tolstoy, it asks how much control any of us have over our lives—and how much is in fact determined by history, by chance, or indeed by the genes passed down by the generations that have preceded us into the world.
"An expansive novel about the complications of human lives and repeating generational patterns, set against a backdrop that skips across a century of tumultuous Russian and Soviet history." ?
Booklist
"A sweeping, ambitious story reminiscent at times of Pasternak in its grasp of both history and tragedy." —
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Epigraph
- Family Tree
- 1. The Willow Chest (1975)
- 2. The Watchmaker’s Shop on Mariinsko-Blagoveshchenskaya Street (1905–1907)
- 3. From the Willow Chest: The Diary of Jacob Ossetsky (1910)
- 4. Closing Chekhov (1974)
- 5. A New Project (1974)
- 6. Classmates (1955–1963)
- 7. From the Willow Chest: The Diary of Jacob Ossetsky (1911)
- 8. The Garden of Magnitudes (1958–1974)
- 9. Admirers (1975–1976)
- 10. A Froebel Miss (1907–1910)
- 11. A Letter from Mikhail Kerns to His Sister, Marusya (1910)
- 12. One-of-a-Kind Yurik: Yahoos and Houyhnhnms (1976–1981)
- 13. A Major Year (1911)
- 14. A Female Line (1975–1980)
- 15. Unaccommodated Man (1980–1981)
- 16. A Secret Marriage (1911)
- 17. From the Willow Chest: Jacob’s Notebook (1911)
- 18. Marusya’s Letters (December 1911)
- 19. First Grade: Fingernails (1982)
- 20. From the Willow Chest: Jacob’s Letter to Marusya: Volunteer Ossetsky (1911–1912)
- 21. A Happy Year (1985)
- 22. From the Willow Chest: Letters from and to the Urals (October 1912–May 1913)
- 23. A New Direction (1976–1982)
- 24. Carmen (1985)
- 25. The Diamond Door (1986)
- 26. From the Willow Chest: The Correspondence of Jacob and Marusya (May 1913–January 1914)
- 27. Nora in America: Visiting Vitya and Martha (1987)
- 28. The Left Hand (1988–1989)
- 29. The Birth of Genrikh (1916)
- 30. Endings (1988–1989)
- 31. A Boat to the Other Shore (1988–1991)
- 32. From the Willow Chest: Family Correspondence (1916)
- 33. Kiev–Moscow (1917–1925)
- 34. Yurik in America (1991–2000)
- 35. Letters from Marusya to Jacob: Sudak (July–August 1925)
- 36. Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (Early 1999–2000)
- 37. Uzun-Syrt—Stalingrad Tractor Plant (1925–1933)
- 38. First Exile: Stalingrad Tractor Plant (1931–1933)
- 39. Yurik Comes Home (Early 2000)
- 40. From the Willow Chest—Biysk: Jacob’s Letters (1934–1936)
- 41. Letters from the Willow Chest: War (1942–1943)
- 42. Fifth Try (2000–2009)
- 43. Family Secrets (1936–1937)
- 44. Variations on a Theme: Fiddler on the Roof (1992)
- 45. With Mikhoels (1945–1948)
- 46. Reunion in Moscow (2003)
- 47. Theater of Shadows (2010)
- 48. Liberation (1955)
- 49. The Birth of a New Jacob (2011)
- 50. The Archives (2011)
- Epilogue
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgments
- Also by Ludmila Ulitskaya
- A Note About the Author and Translator
- Newsletter Sign-up
- Contents
- Copyright