Latest news with #MariaReva
Ottawa Citizen
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. Article content Article content 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Article content Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Article content 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' Article content In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. Article content Article content 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' Article content The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. Article content 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Article content Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges.
Calgary Herald
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. Article content Article content 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Article content Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Article content 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' Article content In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. Article content Article content 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' Article content The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. Article content 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Article content Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges.
National Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- National Post
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. Article content Article content 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Article content Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Article content Article content 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' Article content In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. Article content Article content 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' Article content The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. Article content 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Article content Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges. Article content But snails? Really? Well, an endangered specimen named Lefty turns out to be the key player in a high-intensity scene near the end of the book. Besides, in this author's imaginative world, why shouldn't the fate of a mollusk symbolize the eternal conflict between darkness and light?
Vancouver Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Vancouver Sun
Author Maria Reva's return to Ukraine inspired her to complete novel
In 2023, Maria Reva and her sister were on a train hurtling through a Ukrainian night toward the battle-scarred city of Kherson. They were hoping to reach their grandfather, still there in the midst of carnage. It was crisis time for Reva in more ways than one. The novel she had started to write back in Canada was in jeopardy: what she had originally envisaged as a lighthearted romp satirizing Ukraine's controversial 'romance' tours had been upended by Russian aggression. 'I initially felt I had two choices,' the award-winning Canadian writer says now. 'I could keep writing the novel as though nothing happened in real time. Or I could give up on it.' Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Ultimately, she didn't give up. That return to Ukraine helped her find a way back in, and her debut novel, Endling, has now been published to international acclaim. Typical is the verdict of revered American novelist Percival Everett: 'I love works that are smarter than I am, and this is one.' He's talking about a daring, genre-bending achievement in which Reva herself becomes a recurring presence in the course of a fast-paced narrative. Endling Maria Reva Knopf Canada 'I gave up on it multiple times,' she tells Postmedia from her home on Canada's West Coast. 'I honestly did not envisage any future for it beyond finishing it.' In the midst of this struggle came the need to return to the embattled country of her birth. Reva was seven when she and her family emigrated to Canada in 1997. She had been back many time since — 'but I had a sense of terror when I thought of going to Ukraine this time.' Still, she would adjust to the psychology of a country under siege. Once there, as the sisters moved eastward in the hope of reaching their grandfather, 'the sense of danger became more and more normalized.' Yet danger was definitely present. 'On the train during the night, the conductor asked us to keep the blinds down so that we would not emit any light because trains had become a target for the Russians. The way that my sister and I thought of it was that we were in a closed moving coffin.' The moment came when they could go no further. They would not reach the grandfather they loved. 'It was very difficult accepting limitations on what I was capable of,' Reva says sombrely. 'I think that's why my fiction allows me the fantasy of going where I could not.' So a grandfather figure does play a seminal role in the novel she was able to complete. Reva's lighter side surfaced on late-night television a few weeks ago with her cheerfully discussing the sex life of snails with NBC host Seth Meyers. She might have seemed light-years away from the horrors of Ukraine but in fact she was talking about the very same book, Endling, that had confronted her with so many challenges. But snails? Really? Well, an endangered specimen named Lefty turns out to be the key player in a high-intensity scene near the end of the book. Besides, in this author's imaginative world, why shouldn't the fate of a mollusk symbolize the eternal conflict between darkness and light? Early in the novel, we meet a dedicated scientist named Yeva whose mission in life is to track down rare species of snail and save them from extinction. She helps finance her quest by working in Ukraine's romance tour industry — dating foreign bachelors who have signed up for these ventures in the hope of acquiring a beautiful, pliable fantasy bride. Desperate for money, she finally allows her travelling RV lab to be used in a bizarre plot concocted by feminist militants to discredit the tours — and then the hell of war erupts. 'The novel was intended to be a comedic kidnapping caper, a kind of anti-romance-tour book,' Reva explains. 'That was what I was setting out to write about — that and snail conservation work in the Ukraine.' She wanted to utilize 'light humour' as a means of examining contemporary issues. The Russian invasion landed her in a creative mire 'I finally realized the only way I could keep writing the novel was to pour into it all the ambivalence I was feeling, the questions I had about myself as a writer and the role I then had as an observer of the war from abroad.' The ambivalence stands revealed on page 109 of the finished novel when Reva makes her first personal entry into its pages and shares with the reader a message to her agent: 'I was writing about a so-called invasion of Western bachelors to Ukraine and then an actual invasion happened. To continue now seems unforgivable.' But she did continue — and there would be more personal interventions in the book's narrative. She's not the first writer to rework fictional convention. Centuries ago, Laurence Sterne did it with Tristram Shandy, and more recently John Fowles, Ian McEwan and George Saunders have shown similar boldness. But here, Reva was attempting a multilayered meshing of tone and mood but, equally dangerous, of form and structure — while also ensuring the presence in her pages of living, breathing, fallible human beings. 'I was very apprehensive,' she admits with a laugh. 'I didn't know if i could pull it off. I knew that I might scare some readers.' But then the stylistically audacious Oscar-winning film, Everything Everywhere All At Once, came along and she felt safer. 'That's what made me confident enough to wrote this book in the way that I needed to write it.' Furthermore, although dealing with the darkest of subject matter, she did not stifle her innate gift for humour. She retains the sparkling satire of her early chapters lampooning the marriage tour industry, and later in the book offers the comedy of menace in satirizing to cutting effect what happens when a crew of Russian propagandists arrives to shoot a bogus documentary about the gratitude ordinary Ukrainians feel toward their Russian liberators. 'Humour has a really long tradition in Ukraine as a way to deal with difficult circumstances,' Reva says. 'It's a survival mechanism. If somebody can laugh at something bad, they can rise above it — they can take away its power over them.' As for the book's title — well an 'endling' is the last known member of a species on the verge of becoming extinct, but its use here can have wider implications. If readers come away with a sense of hope, which is Reva's fervent wish, Lefty the snail will have something to do with it. 'I'm not a religious person so I haven't found a solution for myself in dealing with the chaos and utter unknowability of the universe,' Reva says. 'But do suspect that we tell ourselves stories to cover the face of chaos and imbue it with meaning. That ultimately is what the book about. What stories do we tell ourselves in order to feel secure?'
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Book of the day: Endling by Maria Reva
Endling author Maria Reva: 'Life gives you an opening, even during the most horrible times'. Photos / Supplied What do you do when you're a Ukrainian-born Canadian fiction writer deep into the composition of your first novel, which is set in your homeland and written in the absurdist, dark comedic tradition of Kundera, Kafka and Hašek, when Russia suddenly invades your home country, your relatives start fleeing to safety while bombs explode all around them, and your beloved grandfather refuses to leave Kherson, which is being eviscerated in real time? How can you keep on writing imaginatively when atrocities are being perpetrated against innocents in your homeland? Can you keep on living as before, when your reality has dramatically split in two? Such was the dilemma facing Maria Reva while working on Endling. At first, she was seized by panic and debilitating self-questioning. She stopped writing the novel; fiction seemed a folly during times of existential crisis. The only way she could conceive of completing the novel was to fold all those questions into the trajectory of the plot. She did that by breaking the fourth wall: inserting herself as a character narrating her own experience of stopping writing the novel to travel through her war-torn homeland. What began as fiction ended in nonfiction, making Endling neither a work of magical realism nor auto-fiction or memoir, but an original piece encapsulating elements of all three forms. Though written in four parts, the book is riven in two by Russia's very real invasion of Ukraine. The first fictional story is the cinematic unfolding of a complex metaphorical plot, which suddenly concludes by something like the running of credits at the end of a movie. The second section is marked by Reva actually entering the novel to recount her experience of viewing the horrors of wartime and retracing her failed efforts to encourage her grandfather to leave Kherson. But somehow the fictional plot is not left behind, and is woven into the war narrative. What results is a braided tale of extinction, survival and love, concluding in the resurrection of hope. If this sounds like an unattainable ambition, it might just be, but what must be admired is Reva's determination to finish the novel as an act of both desperation and renewal. So what is the plot? And what exactly is an endling? The story revolves around three Ukrainian women, Yeva, Nastia and Solomiya, who meet working for a romance tour company, Romeo Meets Yulia, which brings eager bachelors to Ukraine in search of 'docile' Eastern European wives untainted by feminism. In truth, Yeva is a maverick scientist, a malacologist, who scours Ukraine's forests and valleys in her mobile RV laboratory, collecting, cultivating and nurturing snail endlings – the last existing specimens of a species – in the hope of keeping their lines alive. Why snails? Because 'gastropods have evolved to live anywhere on the planet … have gills to live on water, or have lungs to live on land … can survive extreme temperatures, unsuitable for human life … and possess both male and female parts and reproduce solo'. Yeva believes herself to be an endling; she has no desire to marry or reproduce, despite familial pressure to do so. In fact, she has procured a canister of hydrogen cyanide to see herself out when the time is right, as well as a bridal dress to be buried in. Working as an eligible 'docile' bride is lucrative, and her earnings are funding her scientific experimentation because government grants have run dry. The other two protagonists, beautiful Nastia and her sister Solomiya, who are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Their mother is renowned for organising guerrilla theatre protests, not unlike the members of Russian radical pop band Pussy Riot. The sisters are concocting a huge public political act, mimicking their mother's exploits, in the hope that global attention will bring her out of hiding. The sisters know about Yeva's RV, and are hoping she will allow them to use it, because their grand plan is to kidnap a group of bachelors under the ruse of taking them to a special event where they will finally meet the women of their dreams. That kidnapping, they believe, will expose the exploitation of Ukrainian girls and women and bring universal attention to their plight. The women plot and persevere. Luring the bachelors into their RV along with Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species, they are on their way. But on the road, they hear what they believe to be fireworks and soon learn Ukraine has been invaded by Russia. Rather than driving away from the fierce fighting, they move towards it in search of Lefty's last living mate. At this point in the fictional narrative, the curtain falls, the imagined tale is over, credits roll and the author offers her thanks to all those who have helped her publish this fiction. Then the second part begins and the reality of war sets in. Maria has entered Ukraine and is narrating her journey to save her grandfather, but the three women are still on the road, kidnapped bachelors in tow, in search of a snail. This non-fictional fiction I found gripping but confusing, and also a bit of a slog. Like the RV going off-road, the story veered into allusive and metaphorical tangents filled with elegant explanations of snail copulation and gruesome depictions of slaughter. But like the kidnapped bachelors, I often felt like I was being driven through a void in the dark, not knowing where I or the plot was going. In the end, I admired the novel's intelligence, dark humour and ambition, as well as the author's stated belief that 'life gives you an opening, even during the most horrible times'. For in our worst moments, stories, real or imagined, remain, so we never forget and never lose hope.
