Red Cross

"Red Cross" is one of Sasha Filipenka's most powerful novels, in which a young football referee, Sasha, meets a 91-year-old woman in Minsk who survived the Stalinist Gulag and carries the painful memory of the 20th century. This book is about how the human soul resists oblivion, about the questions we want to ask God, and about the unexpected connection between generations. The novel received wide acclaim abroad and has been translated into dozens of languages. It is now available in Belarusian from the online bookstore Kirma.sh with international delivery.

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“Red Cross” — is a story about memory and oblivion. Young football referee Alexander, Sasha, comes to Minsk to try to rebuild a life torn in half by the will of indifferent fate. And here he meets a woman, ninety-one-year-old Tatyana Alekseevna, who survived Stalin's terror with the hope of sooner or later asking God a couple of questions.

Sasha Filipenka (born in 1984) — is a Belarusian with extensive journalistic experience. He publishes in world-class press and actively defends common sense and humanity.

Author of six novels, as well as short stories and plays. Winner of a number of prestigious awards, the most notable of which is the French literary prize Transfuge for the novel “The Cremulator” as the best European novel of 2023.

Sasha Filipenka's novels have been translated into French, German, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Italian, English, Croatian, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Slovak, Thai, and Korean languages. They were originally written in Russian, but in 2024 they were recreated in Belarusian.

*Before bringing this book to Belarus, make sure it is safe.

Belarusian author Filipenka exposes the recent history of the ruthless Russian state through the story of an unlikely friendship between a young widower and a woman who survived the Stalinist Gulag... He brings freshness and wit to a familiar story of Soviet tragedy.

Publishers Weekly

It was most interesting to hear the voice of a young writer from a generation that barely knew Soviet times, and to see how he grapples with this topic... Journalism can give you a lot of knowledge about the problem, outline its social origins, provide numbers, and voice opinions, but nothing reveals the human soul as deeply as a novel.

Los Angeles Review of Books

What a moving and heartfelt account of a woman desperately wanting to pass on what she lived through while she still remembers. This is how she explains why she loses her memories: “Because God is afraid of me. I have too many inconvenient questions…” Thus begins a gripping, painful, and heartfelt story of the Soviet Union during World War II.

BonnieD

"Red Cross" is a serious book, not too depressing. Without a doubt, the story captivated me and deeply touched me. At the same time, I was also impressed and inspired by the strength, energy, and courage with which the two main characters go through life.

LaViv