Baba Yaga Laid an Egg

Description

Through the voices of three contemporary women, Dubravka Ugresic retells the myth of Baba Yaga - one of the most famous stories in Russian and Eastern European mythology.Baba Yaga is a witch-like character who flies around on a giant mortar, kidnapping (and presumably eating) small children. She lives in a house on chicken feet. She is generally a terrifying figure, portrayed not only in literature but also film, animation and music throughout Russian culture. Dubravka Ugresic takes the story of Baba Yaga and weaves it into something completely fresh. The result is an extraordinary meditation on femininity, ageing, identity, secrets, storytelling and love.

Dubravka Ugresic was born in 1949 in Yugoslavia. She has published both novels and books of essays. Her books have been translated into more then twenty languages and she has received several major European literary awards. She is now based in Amsterdam.

* Ugrasic's retelling may be blisteringly postmodern in its execution but at its heart is a human warmth and even a silliness that infuses it with the sweet magic of storytelling. -- Melissa Katsoulis The Times * Packed with intellectual surprises and emotional revelations -- Tina Jackson The Metro * The message that old crones are the product of "long-lived, labyrinthine, fertile, profoundly misogynistic but also cathartic work of the imagination" is expressed with humour, eloquence and anger. -- Alyssa McDonald New Statesman * Ugresic has a unique tone of voice, a madcap wit and a lovely sense of the absurd. Ingenious. -- Marina Warner * She is a writer to follow. A writer to be cherished. Susan Sontag * Ugresic is sharp, funny and unfazed in the face of the little dictators who have torn apart her former country. Orwell would be proud. -- Timothy Garton-Ash on THE MINISTRY OF PAIN * Contains some of the most profound reflections on culture, memory and madness you wiill ever read. -- Carole Angier on THE MINISTRY OF PAIN Independent