An injury (in)compatible with life. Ekaterina Manoylo

Abstract

The article is devoted to the prose of E. Manoylo, a prominent author from the ranks of the ‘new thirty-year-olds’ (millennials). Manoylo instantly captivated readers with her first novel, Father is Looking to the West [Otets smotrit na Zapad] (2022), whose female protagonist suffers unfair treatment in the extremely patriarchal world of a rural settlement near the border with Kazakhstan. Also analyzing Manoylo’s other novel, The Wind Sweeps Away Dead Leaves [Veter unosit myortvie listya] (2024), the critic finds that, while an organic extension of the millennials’ prose, the author’s writing remains unique in its treatment of subjects and ingenious plot twists. For instance, the first novel explores the topic of domestic abuse, which looms large in Manoylo’s works, in the context of a Kazakh village, thus introducing a clash with a traditional culture into the conversation about this relevant problem, while the second novel is evocative of the notorious case of the Khachaturyan sisters. According to Antonova, Manoylo’s novels are structured as classical stories of a modern-day emancipated Scheherazade aimed at the archetypal Shahryar, a dead but still relevant model of patriarchal culture.