Lucky Breaks

Out of the impoverished coal regions of Ukraine known as the Donbass, where Russian secret military intervention mixes with banditry and insurgency, the women of Yevgenia Belorusets' captivating collection of stories Lucky Breaks emerge from the ruins of an ongoing war. Through a series of unexpected encounters, we are pulled into the ordinary lives of these anonymous women: a florist, a cosmetologist, a witch who catches newborns with a mitt as well as card players, readers of horoscopes, the unemployed. One refugee tries unsuccessfully to leave her broken umbrella behind as if it were a sick relative; a cleaning woman cannot forget how nice her apartment had been when she worked as a manager; a private caregiver in a disputed zone saves her elderly charge from the angel of death; a woman sits down on International Women's Day and can no longer stand up; a woman dreams of finding her missing soldier husband in a forest; a soldier decides to marry war.Belorusets threads these tales of ebullient survival with a mix of humor, verisimilitude, the undramatic, and a profound irony reminiscent of Gogol. She also weaves in twenty-three photographs that, in lyrical and historical counterpoint, form their own remarkable visual narrative.