Lucky Breaks / Щасливі падіння

In Lucky Breaks, we encounter anonymous women from the margins of Ukrainian society, their lives upended by the ongoing conflict with Russia. A woman, bewildered by her broken umbrella, tries to abandon it like a sick relative; a beautiful florist suddenly disappears, her shop converted into a warehouse for propaganda; hiding out from the shelling, neighbors read horoscopes in the local paper that tell them when it’s safe to go outside — IST Publishing

In stories of linguistic verve and dark, absurdist wit, Yevgenia Belorusets writes of how trauma seeps into the mundane, telling surreal, unsettling tales of survival in a shattered country.

See also a photographic projects War in Park / Krieg in Park (2016) and Novovolynsk (2018) which unfold the stories continues stories presented in the book. 

Awards

International Literature Award by Haus der Kulturen der Welt in 2020

Editions

Russian and Ukrainian: Євгенія Бєлорусець. Щасливі падіння. IST Publishing, 2018. 152 c.
German: Yevgenia Belorusets. Glückliche Fälle. Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2019. 154 s.
English: Yevgenia Belorusets. Lucky Breaks. Translated by Eugene Ostashevsky. Pushkin Press. 2022. 136 pp.
Italian: Yevgenia Belorusets. La donna con l'ombrello rotto e altre storie ucraine. Piemme, 2022. 192 p.
Bulgarian: Евгения Белорусец. Щастливи падения. Преводач Денис Коробко. Мека корица, 2002. 164 c.

Press

Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets review – war stories from Ukraine — The Guardian
The Scars of Ukraine’s War, Illuminated in Fiction — THE NEW YORK TIMES
Yevgenia Belorusets: Two Stories from Fortunate Fallings — MUSIC & LITERATURE
Наприклад. Рецензія на книжку «Щасливі падіння» Євгенії Бєлорусець — Prostory
Auf der Suche nach Normalität — Der Standard
Unlucky Stars. Portents of war in Ukraine — The Baffler
The Banality of Gender-Based Violence: On Nataliya Meshchaninova’s “Stories of a Life” and Yevgenia Belorusets’s “Lucky Breaks” — Los Angeles Review of books
Втекти не можна лишитися: "Щасливі падіння" Євгенії Белорусець — Litcentr
The Lonely Voice: "My Sister" by Yevgenia Belorusets — Texas Public Radio
Book Reviews: “Grey Bees” and “Lucky Breaks” — Civilian Life in Wartime Ukraine — The Arts Fuse
Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets — NZ Booklovers
Yevgenia Beloruset über den Krieg – Kiew, offene Wunde — Frankfurter Rundschau

More about Lucky Breaks on this homepage:

Lucky Breaks Performative Readings at Podil Bus Station / 04.11.2018
International Literature Award 2020 by HKW goes to German translation of "Lucky Breaks" / 04.06.2022
Lucky Breaks published in Italian and Bulgarian / 01.05.2022
Stage adaptation of "Lucky Breaks" to be premiered in Ohio theater in NYC / 04.01.2023
"Lucky Breaks" on Book Talk of the Davis Center at Harvard University / 30.03.2023
Fortunate Fallings / Щасливі падіння Lucky Breaks / Щасливі падіння Lucky Breaks / Щасливі падіння Lucky Breaks / Щасливі падіння