Feature story

Book of essays on life in transition launched

“Usually writers don’t trust banks and banks don’t trust writers,” according to novelist Andrei Kurkov. But that didn’t stop the EBRD from commissioning him to produce a book on how writers view the last 15 years of transition – nor did it prevent the author of Death and the Penguin from accepting the challenge.

The result is Histories of Hope in the First Person, a collection of essays by 15 writers from as many of the EBRD’s countries of operations. Launched just before the official opening of the Bank’s 2008 Annual Meeting, the book attempts to take the intellectual pulse of the region after a decade and a half of seismic change.

Three of the authors joined EBRD President Jean Lemierre in presenting the book to the Bank’s guests in Kiev: Mr Kurkov himself; Mikhal Ramach, a Serbian essayist and journalist and chief editor of the independent daily newspaper Danas; and Russian political scientist Andrei Okara.

Mr Ramach noted that Serbia had become “one of the top countries in the world for the use of sedatives. Three quarters of its students want to move abroad after graduation.” But he added that, if only out of necessity, he remained an optimist about the country’s future: “I can’t live without optimism. We can’t live in the 19th century, we must live in the 21st century.”

It is not just the EBRD’s region of operations but the entire world that faces a time of crisis, according to Mr Okara. “This is not just about global warming or water shortages, but a crisis of thought, a lack of strategic vision about mankind.” The Russian essayist predicted, however, that the “post-Soviet area” would prove fertile ground for such a vision. “This area is still in a position to surprise the world.”

“The region is in its puberty,” remarked Mr Kurkov. “That means a lot of chaotic moments, not a lot of logic, lots of machismo and muscles and not a lot of brains.

“But,” he added, “once you are educated, you will be very fast.”

By Mike McDonough, Communications Adviser
17 May 2008