An Attempt at Experimental Self-Construction (2 volumes)

“An Attempt at Experimental Construction of the Self” is a candid autobiographical two-volume work by poet and translator Max Shchur. The first volume, “Innocence,” is about childhood, Belarusianness, literature, and perestroika. The second, “Experience,” is about Minsk in the 1990s, anarchy, emigration, addiction, and the search for oneself. For those who want to read something strong, without a filter. Recommended for 18+.

The book is a fictionalized autobiography. The author himself defines the genre of the book as "mem-ugary." His attempt to understand what the individual human "self" is and how it arises is presented with the author's characteristic humor, often bordering on mockery: not only of the reader, but also of himself.

What is the book about? The book begins in 1910 and ends in 2006. The story of a family of Belarusian partisans and Argentine repatriates, (non)Soviet childhood, perestroika in a separate school on the outskirts of Brest, joining the Belarusian language and poetry, participating in the Belarusian Language Society, the literary underground, creating the first rock band... Then - studying at the Minsk Linguistic University, an anarchist party, sex drugs rock'n'roll, "Minsk Spring", "days", escaping from Belarus, a refugee camp, life in a squat, the Prague émigré community, work at Radio Svaboda, chaotic love affairs, a history of alcoholism and mental illness... The author does not hide any details, including intimate ones, from the readers. It seems that there has never been such a sincere book in domestic literature!

Who is Max Shchur? Max Shchur is a political immigrant, poet, translator, winner of the Giedroyc Prize (2016) for the novel "Completing the Gestalt" and the Yukhnavec Prize for the novel "There Where We Are Not" (2004). He has lived in the Czech Republic since 1998. Author of several books of poetry and prose ("A Letter Found in the Ashes", "Voices", "Kinoraman"), translator from English, Spanish, Czech and other languages. Editor-in-chief of the website "Invisible Places" (2003–2008) and the virtual literary magazine "LitRazh" (2013–2020). Translated the film "Criminal Fiction" into Belarusian, in 2008–2020. collaborated with Belsat television as a translator. Author of a YouTube channel. where he publishes his translations of songs and reflections on Buddhism.