The Town of Fish (Rybhorod)

This is the Ukrainian-language edition of Rybhorod (The Town of Fish) by Natalka Babina, a Belarusian writer of Ukrainian origin. Originally written in Belarusian, the novel was translated into Ukrainian by Bozhena Antoniak and published by Urbino in 2013. It is a village mystery about grief, guilt and the pull of the place you come from.

Alla Bobylova's life was broken by loss: her only, long-awaited daughter died, and drink, drugs and a constant feeling of being unneeded followed. The one thing that holds her together is the land of her childhood, so she returns to the village of Dobratychi in the Berestia region, to old Mokryna, to heal. Then 97-year-old Mokryna is murdered. A crime boss arrives and starts buying up land, and he wants Alla's plot at any price. Again and again she is one step from death.

What makes the book more than a thriller is Alla's strange gift: she can find "burrows" in time, places where she meets her ancestors, and through them she uncovers the secret of a 17th-century Lviv jeweller's treasure. Alla and her childhood friends race the Belarusian secret services to find it, but the heart of the story is memory, roots and the question of what is worth holding on to. A good pick for readers who like crime fiction with emotional depth, and for anyone far from home who knows the pull of a childhood village.

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Edition details

• Author: Natalka Babina
• Translator: Bozhena Antoniak
• Publisher: Urbino, 2013
• Language: Ukrainian
• Pages: 272
• Cover: hardcover, 130 x 200 mm
• ISBN: 9789662647112