The Incredible Events in Women's Cell Number 3

Description

When Anya is arrested at a Moscow anti-corruption rally under false pretences, she is given a 10-day sentence at a detention centre. Her cellmates are five other ordinary women arrested on petty charges. Ten listless days stretch before Anya and, as she appeals her sentence and recalls her progress from apolitical youth to informed citizen, she is troubled by strange, dreamlike visions, and wonders if her cellmates might somehow not be as ordinary as they seem. A brilliant exploration of what it means to be marginalized both as an independent woman and in an increasingly intolerant Russia in particular, The Incredible Events in Women's Cell Number Three introduces one of the most urgent and gripping new voices in international literature.

Kira Yarmysh has been Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny's press secretary since 2014. In connection with her work for Navalny she has been arrested several times and spent fifty days in prison, and is currently living abroad in exile. This is her debut novel. Arch Tait has translated over forty books from the leading Russian writers of today and won the inaugural PEN Literature in Translation Prize in 2010, as well as the English PEN Award in 2016.

'The whole world through a single cell: frightening and funny, absurd and all too real' - Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth 'Superb. I am happy that my past is being recognized: I myself sat in the cell next door (albeit at a different time), and I can confirm that all the characters are very realistic' - Alexey Navalny 'As timely as Maxim Gorky's Hours Spent in Prison, but a much livelier read!' - Boris Akunin