Name: Two Souls
Author: Maksim Haretski

$19.99

The first existentialist novel written in Belarusian, in English for the first time.

Belarus, 1917–1919. Revolution sweeps through the country, and Ignat, torn between private ambition and duty to his people, has to decide who he really is. Two Souls follows his search for identity through a society on the brink, drawn with rare philosophical depth and a sharp eye for the era’s contradictions.

First published in 1919, the novel’s bold critique of Bolshevism got it suppressed for decades. Its author, Maksim Haretski, was executed by the Soviet secret police in 1938.

About the translation

Translated directly from the Belarusian by Olya Ianovskaia, keeping Haretski’s voice intact: philosophically dense, lyrically precise and grounded in history. This is the first complete English rendering of the novel.

Coming soon: a bilingual edition with the English translation and the original Belarusian in one volume.