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Irkadura Kindle Edition

by Ksenia Anske (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 55 ratings
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"My mama became a catfish when I was two, on the day I stopped talking."

Neglected since birth by her mother, Irina Myshko hasn’t spoken a word for most of her short Soviet life. Outcast as a mute idiot and abused by her mother's boyfriends, she escapes into an alternate reality where true natures show and people are revealed as the beasts they are. Pregnant, homeless, and penniless, Irina has to make a choice — learn to live in this splintered world or descend into madness.
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  1. Print length
    263 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    November 3, 2014
  5. File size
    3740 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00P8D2AHA
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 3, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3740 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 263 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 55 ratings

About the author

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Ksenia Anske

Ksenia Anske

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Ksenia Anske was born in Moscow, Russia, and came to the US in 1998. She is the author of dark fantasy short fiction and 7 novels, and the winner of Amtrak Residency Program 2015. Her novel Rosehead won Honorary Mention in the YA Category in the Indie Ebook Award 2016. When she's not writing, she's traveling the world.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
55 global ratings
Beautifully Ugly
5 Stars
Beautifully Ugly
Healing from trauma is a non-linear ever-continuing process. I did not expect this book to become one of many tools in my collection to aid that process, yet here we are, and I'm still at a loss for words, even after days of letting my thoughts digest.I was warned I would weep.But, I did not. I wish it had been that simple.Reading Irkadura, I felt inspired, and heartbroken. Hollowed out with an old wooden spoon, and frayed at the edges. The sort of sadness where you wish you felt like crying, because then it would release, and be gone. Instead it lingers in you like cold on the bones after standing in the chill too long.Beautifully ugly.I didn't find the horrible events described triggering so much as a tool to look at those moments from a distance. Irina's view of her abuse lends the reader a detached point of view to be able to view their own trauma, and while possibly not intentionally, provides a sort of language that eases the difficulty in speaking of it. A set of some kind of linguistic training wheels for those not yet able to muster the strength to speak so bluntly.Dark, and grim, but laced with threads of hope in places you'd never think to look, it bleeds vulnerability.In a few months I might read it again.And maybe then, with my new set of tools and perspective, I'll be able to cry about it.
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Top reviews from the United States

Susan
5.0 out of 5 stars Ksenia Anske is a gifted writer with an imagination like no other
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2017
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Irkadura is a dark, haunting book, startlingly graphic, unexpectedly moving; Ksenia Anske is a gifted writer with an imagination like no other. Once started I couldn’t put it down, I was propelled fast-forward on a hallucinogenic journey with 16-year-old Irina and the gang of bestial characters who inhabit her harum-scarum world.
Irina—Irkadura—is a damaged and self-damaging Russian teenager, filled with hatred for her family and all those who have abused her, and brimming with tender love for Pavlik, the beautiful, gay actor, the Butterfly, who has also been a victim of abuse.
Irina is mute, having taken refuge in silence from the age of two onwards. It’s the way she copes with the horrors she has suffered. The other way is to envision everyone, herself included, as an animal or a bird or a fish or a reptile. Irina the little Mouse is pregnant, and tiny Eaglet in her belly provides the focus of the story, the lifeline to a possible future of happiness with the Butterfly…
Irina’s fantasies are more real to us than the realities of life in the toxic city that is Moscow in the early 1990s, after the break-up of the Soviet system, where the story is set: a city of extremes, of opulence and abject poverty, a society torn apart by lethal factions - communists, nationalists, fascists, homophobics - in Irina's imagination a monstrous spider devouring its children. The city where Ksenia Anske grew up.
And after the awful mayhem and, yes, murder, we long for a happy ending, and no, we don't get one. Yet the ending is what it should be: brave, heart-breaking, curiously upbeat. It haunts the imagination for long afterwards, as does everything about this book. I could say that it is a book about the links between child abuse and repressive societies, because Ksenia Anske's writing has depth to it, you can peel away the layers, but in truth it reads like a glorious, terrifying exorcism, and is all the more beautiful for it.
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Christopher Mahan
5.0 out of 5 stars A brutal roller-coaster, Irkadura is!
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2014
Verified Purchase
I loved the book. It is brutal, raw, and a true emotional roller-coaster.

For the bad news: I'm French, and the author is Russian, so our sense of a good story seem to sync, but some of you may not like it. This book does not follow Hollywood plot-lines or serialized-for-TV episodic repetition. It's a novelization of the author's experience growing up in Moscow in the 1990s, including personal trauma, which is blended into the story, to the reader's best guess.

For the good news: The story is simple, compelling, and fast-paced. The dialog is sparse, moves the action forward. The descriptions are awesome: dense, complex, rich. You can imagine the trees and the buildings and the wind as if you were standing there, knee-deep in the snow. The people are equally well-painted: anger, fear, stresses of all kinds are on effortless display. They come alive, making this story carry you not by increasing page numbers but through vibrant, unique, and driven characters.

The warning: This is not for the faint of heart. There are some terrible scenes, scenes that belong in a psychiatric ward. I would not personally recommend this book to anyone under 18, not necessarily because of the sexual content, but because of the madness.

The physical product is great. It's printed by CreateSpace, an Amazon company, and the book is well-made, a pleasure to hold, feel, and read. Excellent choice of font.

For those who wonder: I have not received anything in exchange for this review. I am, however, a big fan of Ksenia's work and look forward for more books from her in the very near future.
5 people found this helpful
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Jaret Martens
4.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastically Depressing Read (In the Best Possible Way)
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2014
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Irkadura is a strange sort of book, completely unique. If I could describe the book as any one animal, it would be this: a sad, depressed, and abused dog.

I went into Irkadura with little more than a vague understanding that the book takes place in Russia and follows a young girl. I expected a tragic story. What I didn't expect was that I would fall completely in love with the characters Anske has infused the book with. Each was incredibly well thought-out, and all contributed to this incredible story.

Prejudice plays a massive role in the foundation of Irkadura. While saying which types of prejudice are in the book may be considered a spoiler, I will say that most of them were unexpected, and provided an unconventional insight into these issues.

The writing itself was very well done. I loved how it alternated between Irkadura describing things literally, then figuratively. Most of the figurative descriptions are Irina's (the main character) way of dealing with various traumatic incidents . . . and there are a lot of these. I did find a few sections throughout the book a bit hard to follow because of this, especially near the beginning. While every italicized section was clear enough, I found the sudden switch in some of the regular text to be particularly difficult. I could piece together what was happening, but I feel the book may have benefited from scaling back some of this description at times.

The only other problem I had with the book was in relation to Irina's view on communism. This whole issue felt a bit shoehorned in, and while I don't doubt that it would have been on everyone's mind, I do think that it could have been handled more effectively. The parts in particular that bothered me were when Irina would come across what she defines as a 'statue' of Stalin and when she would judge others based on being communist followers. There were parts of the book where this was handled very well (I would need to spoil some of my favorite aspects of the book to properly elaborate on this), but there were just a few short scenes that felt a bit heavy handed.

That said, I loved this book. It might be the most important book I read this year. Ksenia Anske has a clear voice, and I look forward to reading her other works. While I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone due to its rather tragic feel, anyone who reads it is going to be hit repeatedly. This is a book that makes you feel, and a damn good one at that.
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Top reviews from other countries

User
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've ever read
Reviewed in Germany on April 13, 2021
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10/10 would recommend it
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Ember
5.0 out of 5 stars A Novel Deserving More Than a 5*
Reviewed in Canada on March 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
First I would like to say that if I could give a book more than 5*, this would be one of them.

I was directed to Irkadura when I was having a hard time finding a good psychological thriller/suspense novel. To that person – thank you! Going on past failures, this book went up and beyond my expectations. I now need to own it in physical form.

Not one usually lost for words, I find myself having a hard time writing this review. I read it in one sitting, and even though it’s a hard read as it touches on physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, I just couldn’t put it down. From the first page you are instantly drawn into a dark, intense story through description and smooth prose, left with a flooding fountain of emotions when it comes to an end. I could easily envision myself along side the protagonist Irina; enveloped within her world of pain, suffering, need for validation, and someone to love her. As she couldn’t, I wanted to scream out her thoughts, shield her from the evil’s which surrounded her. I’ve never identified so much with a character before, knowing the torture she’d been through. She was damaged, but far from weak. She’s considered an invalid, however I put blame to the ignorant people around her. This book perfectly depicts the atrocities one human can inflict upon another, and how the victim continues to fight to remain intact/become whole.

The only thing I would like to point out is that it is a potential trigger to those who’ve suffered abuse in any form. Please keep that in mind as you read the book. However, don’t let it deter you from a fantastic novel which will stick with you long after you’ve finished.
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JLR
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 10, 2016
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This book had me hooked from the start... Couldn't put it down! Gritty and real and extremely well written, and it broke my heart, but I'd read it all again in a heartbeat. Amazing!
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Sara Kjeldsen
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreakingly beautiful
Reviewed in Canada on October 25, 2018
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Irkadura is one of the best books I have read in years. It broke me to the core. Shattered me. I knew it was going to be a gritty tale when I read that the story is about a young girl outcast in Soviet Russia, but the way Ksenia Anske weaved the story was pure art. I could feel Irina's pain with every new abuse and the heartbreaking longing of wanting to be loved. The whole book was like a dark poem. I imagined how the people became the creatures Irina saw them to be. I could feel the depth of her sadness inside as I read, but I held back my tears until the final page. This is a true tragic tale that has become one of my favourite books.
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