Mykhailo Mykhailovych Kotsiubynsky (Ukrainian: Михайло Михайлович Коцюбинський), (September 17, 1864 – April 25, 1913) was a Ukrainian author whose writings described typical Ukrainian life at the start of the 20th century. Kotsiubynsky's early stories were described as examples of ethnographic realism; in the years to come, with his style of writing becoming more and more sophisticated, he evolved into one of the most talented Ukrainian impressionist and modernist writers. During the Soviet period, Kotsiubynsky was honoured as a realist and a revolutionary democrat. A literary-memorial museum was opened in Vinnytsia in 1927 in the house where he was born.
About twenty novels were published during Kotsiubynsky's life. Several of them have been translated to other European languages.
"Вона, як царівна-жаба в казці, скидала з себе бридку шкуру і з'являлась у всій пишноті молодої краси, — струнка, з білим як крейда чолом, з ясними мов зорі очима, щаслива, повна протилежність дійсності. В її серце, як сильна вода, хвилями било кохання і все для нього, для найкращого парубка на селі…Джок…заздрі погляди подруг… стискання рук…тихі, темні ночі, повні чарів кохання, поцілунків, солодкої млости і щастя без краю…"
I've watched Ukrainian romcoms & cartoons before, but for some reason, I decided my first reading experience in Ukrainian should be...a classic? Makes sense.
Mind you, I understand a good chunk, but not everything, so choosing something written in the 21st century would've been a lot easier, but well, here we are instead.
This is a novella, following a village girl who gets accused of being a witch, and has to prove she isn't, but there are things going on that make her doubt her own mind, what if the villagers are right, and she really is a witch?
This book was giving all evil stepmother stories a run for their money, like, why do you care what she's off doing in the vineyard at night ma'am? It's none of your business. Leave her alone!!
As you can imagine, this spirals out of control, and poor Paraskitza has to face judgement and accusations at every turn.
There's also a bunch of "if she has/does x thing, then she is/isn't a witch", which I feel captured the times really well.
The ending was a bit underwhelming, I was hoping the story would continue past that point, but I get why it didn't.
Overall, this was an okay read, I'll be checking out Kotsiubynsky's other works at some point for sure.
“Але їй все однаково: поведуть її до церкви чи не поведуть; кричатиме вона чи ні! Все, все однаково. Нема на світі щастя, нема долі, ще за життя могила людині мила…”