When Russian backed separatists in the Donbas region (Donetsk and Luhansk) declared their independence in 2014, and the border there separating the Ukrainian forces and the separatists turned into a permanent conflict zone, the people who lived in the villages between these two armies, abandoned their homes and left for one side or the other. But some hardy souls refused to leave. They just stayed put in their homes, grew vegetables in their garden, lived without electricity and sometimes watched shells whizzing past their houses. Sometimes soldiers from either side dropped into their houses for tea or for a conversation, or sometimes did a search of their house. These solitary hardy souls took it all in their stride in good humour. Andrey Kurkov’s ‘Grey Bees‘ is about one such person, Sergey Sergeyich. Nearly everyone in his village has left. He is the only person left in his street. There is one person who lives in the next street. Sergey Sergeyich is a beekeeper. So what does a beekeeper, who lives in the middle of nowhere, in no-man’s-land, who is neither Russian nor Ukrainian, or who is probably both – what does this beekeeper do? Why does he even live there? What is the point? And what does his typical day look like? This story tells us about his life across a period of time (probably a year). I won’t tell you more, but I’ll let you read the book and enjoy its pleasures.
The whole situation described in the book is absurd and funny and it looks like a scene straight out of a Kafka story or a Beckett play. But the unfortunate thing is that what it describes is real and that is heartbreaking. There are people living in no-man’s-land in this border between Ukraine and the breakaway republics and if we step back and think, there are such places across the world and people who live there, who belong neither here nor there. This is the kind of absurd situation war leads to, and it is sad. Sergey Sergeyich is one of the great introvert characters and he made me think of the main character in Robert Seethaler’s ‘A Whole Life‘. His neighbour in the next street Pashka is very interesting too, and there are two women who make an appearance later in the book, Galya and Aisylu, who are fascinating.
Andrey Kurkov’s prose is spare and there are many beautiful passages in the book. The passages about bees and beekeeping are a pleasure to read. I think this is the first Boris Dralyuk translation I have read and I loved it.
I loved ‘Grey Bees‘. I think out of the three Andrey Kurkov books I’ve read till now, this is my favourite.
Some of my most favourite passages in the book were about silence. I’m sharing a few of them here.
“A couple of days earlier, the last time he’d gone out to the edge of the garden, the snow-white field had been spotless. There had been nothing but snow, and if you looked at it long enough, you would begin to hear white noise – a kind of silence that takes hold of your soul with its cold hands and doesn’t release it for a long time. The silence around here was of a special sort, of course. Sounds to which you have grown accustomed, to which you no longer pay any attention, are also fused into silence.”
“All that remained was to pull the blanket up to his ears and fall asleep until the morning or until the cold woke him. Yet the silence, thanks to the snowfall, felt somehow incomplete. And when silence is incomplete, there arises, willy-nilly, the desire to complete it. But how? Sergeyich had long ago grown used to the sound of distant bombardments, which had become an integral part of silence. But now the snowfall – a much less frequent guest – had blocked out that sound with its rustling. Silence, of course, is an arbitrary thing, a personal aural phenomenon that people adjust for themselves. In earlier days, Sergeyich’s silence was not unlike the silence of others. It easily absorbed the drone of an aeroplane up in the sky or the night-time chirp of a cricket that had hopped in through an open window. All quiet sounds that cause no irritation and don’t turn one’s head eventually fuse into silence. So it was with Sergeyich’s peacetime silence. And so it became with his wartime silence, in which military sounds suppressed and displaced peaceful, natural ones, but, in due course, also nestled under the wings of silence and ceased to draw attention to themselves. Now Sergeyich lay in bed, seized by a strange anxiety because of the snowfall, which seemed too loud. Instead of drifting off to sleep, he lay there and thought.”
“…he tuned his ears to the colourful, sonorous silence of the world around him, the now silent flying-crying creature suddenly forgotten. Into this silence were woven the whisper of foliage, the breeze’s breath, the buzzing of bees – all the tiny sounds that constitute the peaceful silence of summer. As he listened closely, Sergeyich noticed that the sun had finally departed. The silence grew louder, more evident. One could stroke it, as one would a cat or a dog; it was warm, and it brushed up against Sergeyich gently, pleading for his involvement, his participation in its life, its sounds. And so, when his eyes had got accustomed to the sun’s absence, the beekeeper began to supplement the silence by searching for kindling. Having gathered some branches, twigs and even two planks from a wooden box, Sergeyich struck a match – and the sound of it also blended into the silence, becoming its property, an integral part of it, a note in its endless music.”
Have you read ‘Grey Bees‘? What do you think about it?
As you know Vishy, I became aware of this title because it was on the longlist of the Dublin Literary Award, and the library even share something of the author’s inspiration as he heard about this grey zone and began to visit it.
Your description of the book is so touching Vishy, it makes us imagine that undesirable situation immediately and the events happening right now only magnify it.
I know the book was written without knowledge of the current war, and it is perhaps because of that the author could employ humour, but thanks to the creative spirit and inspiration of Andrey Kurkov, these people will not be forgotten.
A wonderful review.
Glad you liked the review, Claire. So nice to know that this book was on the longlist of the Dublin Literary Award. Nice to know that the library shared the author’s inspiration behind this story. Yes, the current war just magnifies this situation. I don’t know how the people in the grey zone are doing these days. It must be even harder for them. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I think I would like this very much. I cannot imagine what it must be like to come from that region. I’ve not read Kurkov yet but think I have one of his books here. These are beautiful quotes. I like how he focuses on sound. It’s so often neglected in literature.
Hope you like this book if you decide to read it, Caroline. It is so beautiful. Yes, it is hard to imagine what it is like to be there. Glad you liked the quotes. So beautiful, aren’t they? I can’t stop thinking about them.
Great review Vishy. I’ve read some Kurkov, but not for a long time and this sounds scarily prescient…
Glad you liked the review, Kaggsy. Nice to know that you have read some Kurkov. Yes, this book is so heartbreaking. But now looking at the news, I’m not even sure whether the grey zone is still there or the Russian troops have moved in. It is very heartbreaking.
I am typing this comment very quietly so that I don’t disturb the silence.
Just kidding, but I did love the quotations.
Loved what you said 😊