The novel “Bat-Ami” won the Sholom Aleichem Prize

Writer Oleksiy Nikitin

LB.ua

The State Agency for Arts and Art Education announced the winner of the Sholom Aleichem Award. He became Oleksiy Nikitin, the author of the novel “Bat-Ami”, published in 2021.

12 writers claimed the victory, informs Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.

“On the eve of the 165th anniversary of the birth of the writer and playwright Sholom Aleichem, the State Agency for Arts and Art Education announced the winner of the prize of the same name. This year, the winner was the writer Oleksiy Nikitin for the novel “Bat-Ami””– says the message of the ICIP.

“Bat-Ami” is a documentary novel based on the tragic story of a Ukrainian-Jewish family that lived in Kyiv during World War II.

The main character is boxer and multiple champion Ilya Goldinov, who in 1941 becomes the commander of a partisan unit in the Kyiv region. His wife Felix and young daughter left the city by 1943, but returned to find out what had happened to her husband.

The story of this family is woven into the vicissitudes of the World War, revealing the complex relationship between Ukrainians and Jews during the Nazi occupation of Ukrainian lands.

In addition, this is the first novel written on the basis of the documents of the First (Intelligence) Department of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR, which were declassified in 2011.

Also the laureates of the award were:

• Andriy Pavlyshyn for the translation of the anthology of Horace Safrin’s works “By Shabbat candles. Jewish humor” (Dukh i Litera publishing house);
• Ilaria Shevchenko for the translation of Antonio Iturbe’s novel “The Librarian from Auschwitz” (VIVAT publishing house).

Andriy Pavlyshyn for the translation anthologies of Horace Safrin’s works “By Shabbat candles. Jewish humor“ (publishing house “Spirit and Letter“);

Ilaria Shevchenko for the translation of Antonio Iturbe’s novel “Librarian from Auschwitz” (VIVAT publishing house).

Sholom Aleichem Award are awarded to writers, translators, screenwriters, playwrights for the best literary and artistic works that popularize the spiritual and cultural assets of the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples and contribute to the spread of a positive image of Ukraine in the world.

New works published within the last three years, but no later than one month before their nomination, can be nominated for the award. The monetary reward for the award is 20 thousand hryvnias.

We will remind you that last year she was the winner of the award became Ukrainian writer Sofia Andruhovych with the novel “Amadoka”.