Ivan and Phoebe

Ivan & Phoebe chronicles the lives of several young people involved in the Ukranian student protests of the 1990s, otherwise known as the Revolution On Granite or the “First Maidan.” The story bounces between politically charged cities like Kyiv & Lviv, & protagonist Ivan’s small, traditional hometown of Uzhgorod. As characters come to exercise their rights to free speech & protest, they must also re-evaluate the norms of marriage, family, & home life. While these initially appear to be spaces of peace & harmony, they are soon revealed to be hotbeds of conflict & multigenerational trauma. Married couple Ivan & Phoebe grapple with questions about family, trauma, & independence. Although Ivan tells the story, Phoebe’s voice rings through the text as she divulges her own traumas through poetic monologues. The two reflect on the traumatic aftermath of revolution: torture at the hands of the KGB & each other. While Ivan refuses to talk about his pain, Phoebe describes her past through poetic monologues. Lutsyshyna’s poetic form allows her to experiment with characterization & genre, creating her own category. Through her characters’ vivid voices, Lutsyshyna creates a his- and her-story of Ukraine: a panoramic view of post-Soviet society & family life through social, political, & economic crises.°°° Oksana Lutsyshyna, Ukrainian writer, literary scholar, translator, & lecturer in the Department of Slavic & Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, won the Taras Shevchenko National Prize in Literature & the Lviv City of Literature UNESCO Prize for her novel Ivan & Phoebe (Vydavnytstvo starogo leva, 2019). Events in the novel unfold during the late Soviet period & the early years of Ukraine’s independence.Nina Murray was born & raised in Lviv. She holds advanced degrees in Creative Writing (Poetry) & English Language & Literature. Ivan and Phoebe spotlights the uproarious generation that led the Ukrainian independence movement of 1990; from subjugation to revolution to post-Soviet rule, it investigates the difficulties and absurdities of societal change and the families that change with it. Ivan and Phoebe chronicles the lives of several young people involved in the Ukranian student protests of the 1990's, otherwise known as the Revolution On Granite or the "First Maidan." The story bounces between politically charged cities like Kyiv and Lviv, and protagonist Ivan's small, traditional hometown of Uzhgorod. As characters come to exercise their rights to free speech and protest, they must also re-evaluate the norms of marriage, family, and home life. While these initially appear to be spaces of peace and harmony, they are soon revealed to be hotbeds of conflict and multigenerational trauma. Married couple Ivan and Phoebe grapple with questions about family, trauma, and independence. Although Ivan tells the story, Phoebe's voice rings through the text as she divulges her own traumas through poetic monologues. The two reflect on the traumatic aftermath of revolution: torture at the hands of the KGB and each other. While Ivan refuses to talk about his pain, Phoebe describes her past through poetic monologues. Lutsyshyna's poetic form allows her to experiment with characterization and genre, creating her own category. Through her characters' vivid voices, Lutsyshyna creates a his- and her-story of Ukraine: a panoramic view of post-Soviet society and family life through social, political, and economic crises. Ivan and Phoebe chronicles the lives of several young people involved in the Ukrainian student protests of the 1990s—otherwise known as the Revolution on Granite or the First Maidan and investigates the difficulties and absurdities of a society swiftly shifting from subjugation to revolution to post-Soviet rule. Married couple Ivan and Phoebe grapple with questions about family, tragedy, and independence. Although protagonist Ivan tells the story, Phoebe's voice rings through the text. The two reflect on the harrowing aftermath of revolution: torture at the hands of the KGB and each other. Ivan refuses to talk about his pain, while Phoebe recounts her past wounds through poetic monologues. The story bounces between politically charged cities like Kyiv and Lviv and Ivan's small, traditional hometown of Uzhhorod. As characters come to exercise their rights to free speech and protest, they must also reevaluate the norms of marriage and home life. These initially appear to be spaces of peace and harmony but are soon revealed to be hotbeds of conflict and multigenerational trauma. Through her characters' vivid voices, Oksana Lutsyshyna creates a his- and her-story of Ukraine: a panoramic view of post-Soviet society and family life through social, political, and economic crises.