Sasha Filipenko

What would happen if a young man in Belarus woke up after ten years in a coma? Everything has changed in the family and private environment of the young cellist Franzisk in Minsk: His girlfriend has long since looked elsewhere, his mother has a new family, his beloved grandmother, the only one who took care of him, is no more. Only in his country is everything exactly as it was before… An authoritarian president is in power, young people are leaving the country in droves, and any protest is immediately stifled. Will Francis find his place in this ossified country?

“You can’t write about Belarus in an apolitical way,” says Sasha Filipenko; he is also a harsh critic of the regime in letters to the editor and interviews. In the meantime, he himself has been targeted by the Belarusian authorities; his books are now only sold under the counter.

Sasha Filipenko, born in 1984, is a Belarusian author who writes in Russian. He dropped out of a classical music education, studied literature, and has worked as a journalist, gag writer for a satire show, and television host, among other things. He is also a passionate soccer fan. The Former Son is his second novel to be published in German.

Languages: Russian and German
Moderation and translation: Irina Kissin