Unveiling Hidden Realities: Anna Badkhen’s To See Beyond Challenges Perception and Truth
Born in Soviet Russia and coming of age during the post-communist era, when Leningrad reverted to St. Petersburg, Badkhen, as our translator, brings an elegiac quality to things lost, things slightly out of reach. In her preface she writes:
“I love to stand, after sundown, outside my friends’ hearths, just beyond that circle of calm domestic light. The world behind me has quieted into sleep, and the golden halo of lamp or candle or cooking fire holds my loved ones as if in an ark. From where I stand, outside, I like to imagine that my friends are safe, even if they aren’t, and warm, even if they aren’t.”
