US/EN
Playing Part
Daria Wilke
(Author)
Marian Schwartz
(Author)
Description
The first young adult novel translated from Russian, a brave coming-out, coming-of-age story.In June 2013, the Russian government passed laws prohibiting gay propaganda, threatening jail time and fines to offenders. That same month, in spite of these harsh laws, a Russian publisher released PLAYING A PART, a young adult novel with openly gay characters. It was a brave, bold act, and now this groundbreaking story has been translated for American readers.In PLAYING A PART, Grisha adores everything about the Moscow puppet theater where his parents work, and spends as much time there as he can. But life outside the theater is not so wonderful. The boys in Grisha's class bully him mercilessly, and his own grandfather says hateful things about how he's not masculine enough. Life goes from bad to worse when Grisha learns that Sam, his favorite actor and mentor, is moving: He's leaving the country to escape the extreme homophobia he faces in Russia. How Grisha overcomes these trials and writes himself a new role in his own story is heartfelt, courageous, and hopeful.Product Details
Price
$18.99
Publisher
Arthur A. Levine Books
Publish Date
March 31, 2015
Pages
176
Dimensions
6.42 X 8.31 X 0.72 inches | 0.59 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780545726078
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About the Author
Daria Wilke was born in Moscow in 1976, and drew on her childhood while writing PLAYING A PART, as she grew up in a family of puppeteers. She now works at the University of Vienna in Austria. Marian Schwartz is an award-winning translator of classic and contemporary Russian literature. She is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowships and is a past president of the American Literary Translators Association. She studied Russian at Harvard University, Middlebury Russian School, and Leningrad State University, and received a master's from the University of Texas at Austin. She lives in Austin, Texas.
Reviews
Advance praise for Playing A Part
A devastatingly affecting portrait of a boy on a quest to find pride in his queerness, in a society where there is no bigger danger than not measuring up as a man. -- Bill Konigsberg, award-winning author of Openly Straight and Out of the Pocket
Russia may seem a world away, but Daria Wilke's beautiful novel brings home the fact that in matters of the heart, we are very close indeed. -- James Lecesne, co-founder of The Trevor Project and editor of THE LETTER Q
A devastatingly affecting portrait of a boy on a quest to find pride in his queerness, in a society where there is no bigger danger than not measuring up as a man. -- Bill Konigsberg, award-winning author of Openly Straight and Out of the Pocket
Russia may seem a world away, but Daria Wilke's beautiful novel brings home the fact that in matters of the heart, we are very close indeed. -- James Lecesne, co-founder of The Trevor Project and editor of THE LETTER Q
