Cassandra Smokes Cigarettes
Kassandra kuryt’ papirosy
Author: Anna Bezpala
Illustrations: —
For readers: Adults
Language: Ukrainian
Publisher: Brustury
Year of publication: 2025
Edition type: Hardcover
Number of pages: 376
Dimensions: 145 × 200 mm
Weight: 460 g
ISBN: 978‑617‑569‑737‑5
Description:
“‘Cassandra Smokes Cigarettes’ is set in Kyiv in January 1918, where the future loses certainty and the protagonist Cassandra begins to doubt her own prophecies. Nurse Natalia of the Kyrylivska psychiatric hospital and the daughter of her eccentric patient Kasya must find a way out of the city that is nearly surrounded by Bolshevik forces. Natalia records events in her diary and describes the varied inhabitants of the capital — from eccentric actresses to soldiers of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and Bolshevik agitators. At times the century‑old Kyiv eerily resembles the present. Ultimately Natalia faces the timeless dilemma of war: stay and fight or leave?” Brustury
