The Museum of Abandoned Secrets

560 Pages·2012·2.97 MB·English

by  Zabuzhko Oksana

Praise for The Museum of Abandoned Secrets
“Many books at the top of the bestseller list today are not necessarily
distinguished by the quality of their language. In Ukraine, however, a book that
has been the number-one bestseller since it was published is not only an
exception to this rule, but quite the opposite. Oksana Zabuzhko’s The Museum of
Abandoned Secrets is so rich and precise in its language, and also so political
and demanding, that one cannot help wondering what is different about
Ukraine.”
—Kultur Spiegel
“The Museum of Abandoned Secrets is a magnum opus, in which everything that
the armory of literature can provide is mobilized against the forces of darkness:
strong emotions, the power of pathos, the most compelling images...A novel of
power—and a powerful novel.”
—Deutschlandradio
“Pugnacious, feverish, brilliant—with her 759-page novel about the history of
Ukraine in the twentieth century, Oksana Zabuzhko has thrown open a window
in her homeland. She is already celebrated as a second Dostoyevsky, but above
all she has triggered an intense debate about social relationships and their roots
in the past that people have yet to come to terms with.”
—Schweizer Radio DRS
“As an attempt at the archeology of memory it sets the world on fire, as a
romance novel it is touching, and as a vivisection of social and political
injustices in late-and post-communist Ukraine it has a virulence that is difficult
to surpass.”
—Ilma Rakusa, NZZ
“Violence and fear lie in the bones of generations of Ukrainians, and what power
do the ostracized dead have over the living? Oksana Zabuzhko writes about this
heavy subject as lightly and freshly as the main female character talks.”
—WDR
“This book is a spectacular intellectual success. It is driven by the belief that
intellectual and political freedom is the only thing worth fighting for, apart from
love, of course. Equipped with an almost megalomaniacal imagination and
defiant humor, the author invents dreamlike parallel collateral campaigns,
illuminates culture, society, and politics in multiple perspectives, and makes
ghostly excursions into the past...With The Museum of Abandoned Secrets,
Oksana Zabuzhko has written both herself and Ukraine into the scabby heart of
Europe.”
—Berliner Zeitung

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to
real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Text copyright © 2009 by Oksana Zabuzhko
English translation copyright © 2012 by Nina Shevchuk-Murray
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
The Museum of Abandoned Secrets was originally published in 2009 by Fact,
Kiev, as Музей покинутих секретів. Translated from Ukrainian by Nina
Shevchuk-Murray.
Published by AmazonCrossing
P.O. Box 400818
Las Vegas, NV 89140
ISBN-13: 9781611090116
ISBN-10: 1611090113
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012946025
For Mom and Rostyk
Regardless of their original functions, objects buried for an extended time
underground or under water become archeological artifacts. At the moment they
are recovered, their new history begins. Being buried underground often results
in damage ... to both organic and inorganic materials.... The goal of
preventative conservation is to arrest the progress of such destruction by
ensuring optimal storage conditions.
—From “Cultural Welfare: Restoration of
Archeological Finds in Berlin’s
State Museums,” exhibit guide,
Altes Museum, Berlin,
March 27–June 1, 2009
To know what’s happened to us ... wait for us.
—A 1952 inscription on a wall of the Lviv KGB prison,
open to the public since 2009
as the Lontsky Street Prison Museum

CONTENTS
Room 1. This
Room 2. From the Cycle Secrets: Contents of a Purse Found at the Scene of the
Accident
Room 3. Adrian’s Dreams
Room 4. From the Cycle Secrets: After the Blast
Room 5. An Evening for Two
Room 6. Adrian’s Last Dream
Room 7. The Road to Zolotonosha
Room 8. Blood in Kyiv
AFTERWORD
RESOURCES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR