Oorlog en Kermis – Olaf Koens (2015)

A set of stories about the surreal world Russians, Ukrainians and other former Soviet peoples live in. A world wherein everything and everyone is suspect, where the abnormal is normal and vodka is consumed like water.  Although every story is different – from the adventures of Pussy Riot to the incarceration of Greenpeace employees, from a meteorite hitting Siberia (locals couldn’t bother less) to the utter chaos of the Maidan revolution and the pompous Janukovitsj palace turned into an theme park – in everyone of them the spirit of the Soviet Union can be felt. The characters of this book are either longing to restore the former empire or fighting communist demons.