Skip to content
  • Common Currency
  • Campaigns
    • PENWrites
    • Writers at Risk
    • Writers in Residence
    • Free speech in the UK
  • News
  • Events
  • Translation
    • PEN Translates
    • PEN Transmissions
    • International Translation Day
    • The World Bookshelf
      • Books
      • Authors
      • Translators
    • PEN Presents
      • Issues
      • Books
      • Apply to PEN Presents
  • Prizes
    • PEN Pinter Prize
    • PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize
  • Donate
  • Join
Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > Down Among the Fishes

Down Among the Fishes

Two twin sisters, natives of Dobratyche, a small Belarusian village on the Buh river close to the border with Poland, set out to examine the events that led to granny Makrynya’s unexpected death. Their trek quickly turns into a murder investigation. As the twins uncover new facts of the crime, more questions need to be answered. But will they? A rural intrigue continues to hold the villagers firm in its grasp until the very resolution.

Today mostly associated with the personality of President Lukashenko, Belarus remains terra incognita for the rest of the world. Babina’s surprisingly fresh portrait of today’s Belarus celebrates the country’s diverse demographics be it business, education, culture or just the way people go about their daily errands. Quiet and shy, Belarus turns out to be the land of grandeur, vastness of spirit and passionate hearts and minds.

 

Author

Natalka Babina

Natalka Babina

Books

Down Among the Fishes

Natalka Babina was born on May 15, 1966 in Belarus, close to the border with Poland and Ukraine, and graduated from the Belarusian Institute of Technology in Minsk. Babina worked at the editorial departments of two Belarusian newspapers. Since 1994, she’s published her works in the independent newspaper Nasha Niva. Since 2006, she has become a journalist at the same venue, also collaborating with other presses in Belarus and Ukraine.

Natalka Babina authored a collection of stories, The Blood Should Not Be Seen and a novel The Town of Fish, both translated into Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Czech. Natalka became the laureate of the Cherkasova Prize of the Belarusian Association of Journalists in 2010.

Translator

Jim Dingley

Jim Dingley

Books

Down Among the Fishes

A Large Czeslaw Milosz With a Dash of Elvis Presley

Jim Dingley was born in Leeds in 1942. The school he attended was one of the first in the UK to start teaching Russian in the aftermath of the launch of the first Soviet satellite. He continued his studies of Russian and other Slavonic languages at Cambridge in the early 1960s. After a brief stint working in the Netherlands and then in the British Museum Library (now the British Library), he worked in the University of Reading and then in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He retired in 2003 and has never looked back. His interest in Belarus and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania began in 1966 and he is now quite literally married to the region — his wife, Ella, is a native Belarusian speaker from Miensk; without her help and support the translation of Natalka Babina’s book would have taken much longer and would have been much poorer.

Published by

Glagoslav Publications, 2013
Buy Book

Share

Two twin sisters, natives of Dobratyche, a small Belarusian village on the Buh river close to the border with Poland, set out to examine the events that led to granny Makrynya’s unexpected death. Their trek quickly turns into a murder investigation. As the twins uncover new facts of the crime, more questions need to be answered. But will they? A rural intrigue continues to hold the villagers firm in its grasp until the very resolution.

Today mostly associated with the personality of President Lukashenko, Belarus remains terra incognita for the rest of the world. Babina’s surprisingly fresh portrait of today’s Belarus celebrates the country’s diverse demographics be it business, education, culture or just the way people go about their daily errands. Quiet and shy, Belarus turns out to be the land of grandeur, vastness of spirit and passionate hearts and minds.

 

Join our mailing list

Sign up to receive the latest English PEN news and events.

SIGN UP
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Partners
  • Jobs
  • Contact us

With thanks to our Core Funders

©1921 - 2023

English PEN is a company limited by guarantee number 5747142 (England & Wales) and a registered charity, number 1125610.

We use cookies to help us improve your experience on our website. By closing this notification or interacting with the website you agree to our use of cookies. ACCEPT Find out more
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT