"Aliie, Aliona and I. From our names, written in a row or a column, you can study the history of Crimea."
Crimea. It was here that the main character of the novel spent her childhood, youth, and first love. It was here that she realized that she was Ukrainian. Neither grandfather, a KGB lieutenant colonel, nor russian blood in his veins stood in the way of this.
Like an ornament, the novel intertwines Crimean Tatar culture and Ukrainian history. On the pages of the book, the reader will meet Crimean Tatars, Karaites, Ukrainians, russians, Germans, Jews, Greeks, and Armenians of Crimea, step by step he will open cabinets with family skeletons. Together with the main character and her friend, Aliie will travel from their childhood - from the 1990s - to the occupation of the peninsula by russia in 2014, with excursions into the ancient history of Crimea.
"There is Land behind Perekop" is an attempt to discover the mainland for the peninsula, and the peninsula for the mainland from an unusual angle. After all, there is land both there and there. It should be known and restored to its integrity.
Work on the book continued since 2012. With the beginning of the occupation of Crimea in 2014, the concept changed. During this time, the author conducted about 200 interviews with more than 50 Crimeans. The details of their stories became part of the novel.
About the author:
Anastasia Levkova is a Ukrainian writer, cultural manager, editor, and lecturer. The author of the books "Senior Class. Freshman", "Ashyk and Omer" and "Common Language. How Words are Born and Live." Coordinator of the literary contest "Crimean Fig / Qırım inciri" and co-editor of the anthologies of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar prose, poetry, and translations of the same name. Member of the Ukrainian PEN. Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters.
