Without soil. Stories | Viktor Petrov-Domontovych

The novel "Without Soil" and the stories "Revenge", "The Tamed Haidamaka", and "Oh, Revukha Has Gone..." are connected by a common theme - stories about internal struggle, when contradictory identities intertwine in one person and there is a need to play a role that does not correspond to their true feelings.

The events of the novel "Without Soil" unfold at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, when the ideologists of the new world declare a complete break with traditions, seeking to start history from a clean slate and create a person unburdened by the legacy of the past. In an authoritarian state, the leader must become the only object of veneration.

Kharkiv cultural expert Rostyslav Mykhailovych returns to his native Dnipro to resolve the issue of the fate of a building associated with his teacher - the Varangian Church.

Domontovich conveys an atmosphere of total state fear, when the masks people wear sometimes seem to grow onto their faces, and intellectuals resort to escaping from the terrifying reality.

About the series "Uncanonical Canon"

When thinking about the canon of Ukrainian literature, a few names from the school curriculum immediately come to mind – Shevchenko, Franko, Nechuy-Levytsky. However, this list is much broader and more diverse.

The series "Uncanonical Canon" was created to introduce you to authors you previously knew little about or whose works you read without realizing the context of the contemporary reality. This is an invitation to open up to familiar strangers. The series presents a wide range of Ukrainian writers and their works - from Pidmohylny and Bahryany to Khvylyov and Johansen, from refined intellectual novels to dynamic adventure stories, from innovative urban prose to deeply psychological essays.

Each work is accompanied by reading keys from Ukrainian literary scholars, which will help you pay attention to the most important moments of the text and discover new facets of the work of Ukrainian classics.