Please note: this event will be held exclusively in Russian. The reading and Q&A will be in Russian only, and no translation will be provided.

Фокус (Disappearing Act) is the latest work by Maria Stepanova, whose critically acclaimed novel In Memory of Memory has been translated into over 20 languages. Set in the summer of 2023, the story follows a writer known only as M. – her homeland never named, though easy to guess – as she journeys across Europe. What begins as a seemingly ordinary trip quickly unravels into a series of disruptions, mishaps, and unexpected turns that shake her sense of self and reality. Against a backdrop of quiet, yet deeply recognizable, political and emotional turmoil, M.'s travels become a reflection of a fractured world and a fragmented identity. With striking clarity and subtle power, Disappearing Act captures the disorientation of a Russian author navigating life in the wake of 2022.

This is not just a story of one woman on the move – it is a profound meditation on exile, presence, and the invisible lines that now divide artists from their past. Stepanova's new book is an urgent, intimate exploration of what it means to disappear – and to remain seen.

The reading will last for 2 hours with a 15 minute break, followed by Q&A.

The book will be presented by the author, Maria Stepanova, a renowned poet, essayist, and journalist, with ten poetry collections and three books of essays to her name. Stepanova’s work has earned numerous Russian and international honours, including the Andrei Bely Prize and the Joseph Brodsky Fellowship. Her novel In Memory of Memory won the Bolshaya Kniga Award in 2018 and was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, a prestigious prize awarded in the field of literature in English. In 2021, Bloodaxe published her poetry collection War of the Beasts and the Animals in Sasha Dugdale’s translation, selected as the Poetry Book Society Translation Choice in Spring 2021. Disappearing Act will also be published in English by Fitzcarraldo Editions later this year in a translation by Sasha Dugdale.

The reading will be performed by Alisa Khazanova, a theatre and film actor, film director, screenwriter and producer currently based in London. In theatre, Alisa is known for her one-woman shows. In 2018 she appeared on stage in London in The Girl and Death, directed by Maxim Didenko. Since 2022, she has been performing in The Last Word, also directed by Didenko. The production revolves around the final statements of women accused of political crimes in Russian courts, the last remnants of free speech in Russia

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