Elena Kostyukovich - translator and writer. Born in Kiev. She received the awards "For the best translation of the year", "ZoIL", "Grinzane Cavour", "Hospitality", "Bankarella", Chiavari, "For the rapprochement of cultures."
short biography
Elena Kostyukovich is the director of Russian programs from the publishing house "Bompiani" and "Frassinelli", the organizer of relations between Italy and Russia. From childhood I got into the literary environment. She is the granddaughter of the writer and artist Leonid Volynsky. Kostyukovich Elena Alexandrovna - teacher of Italian universities in Milan, in Trieste, in Trento. He teaches courses in Russian culture.
Publications and translations
Elena Kostyukovich graduated in 1980 from Moscow State University. Her specialty is Italian Studies. She defended her thesis on poetry. She commented and translated the works of Ludovico Ariosto “Frantic Roland”, Emanuele Tesauro “The Spyglass of Aristotle”, Giuseppe Giusti “Jokes”. Engaged in contemporary Italian poetry. She has published numerous translations of it. Some of her works were included in a special anthology, Stanzas of the Century-2. It is dedicated to the best poetic translations of the XX century. The translation of the novel "The Name of the Rose," by Umberto Eco, created by Elena Kostyukovich, was perceived by readers as an event of the year. Since that time, she has brought to the Russian public all the works of this master of the word. She translated novels: “The Island Before”, “The Pendulum of Foucault”, “Baudolino”, “The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana”, “Prague Cemetery”, “Notes on the Fields of the Name of the Rose”, “How to Write a Thesis”, “Five essays on topics ethics ”,“ Full back! ”. He is the scientific editor of the Russian-language versions of Eco's works Beauty, as well as The History of Ugliness.
Work in Italy
Books by Elena Kostyukovich are known not only in Russia. She made a significant contribution to the publishing of Italy. She developed and mastered a number of large projects that are associated with Russia. It all started with an anthology called "Contemporary Russian Stories, Selected by Elena Kostyukovich." She also published specially compiled from fragments of the works of D. S. Likhachev, conceptually illustrated volume "The Roots of Russian Culture." Subsequently, it was published in Japan, Germany and Russia. She also studied anthology of Jewish folklore. The books that were created by Kostyukovich have been in catalogs for many years. They are valuable material for learning about Russia and its culture. Kostyukovich created a number of articles devoted to Russian writers. They appeared in the literary encyclopedia of Italy under the name Bompiani Dictionary. Thanks to the work of Kostyukovich, such famous authors as Sasha Sokolov, B. Akunin, Lyudmila Ulitskaya publish in Italy.
Books
Now let's talk about what Elena Kostyukovich writes. “Food is Italian happiness” is one of her most famous books. It is dedicated to the universal role of cuisine in the culture of this mysterious country. For this work, the prize "Hospitality" was awarded to the author - Elena Kostyukovich. “Food is Italian happiness” is a book that also has a revised version, released under a slightly changed title. The society accepted this work as a culinary guide to the Italian regions. In 2007, the work was awarded the prestigious literary prize of Bancarella, as well as Chiavari. In addition, she entered the IACP Cookbook Award final in 2010. The book was not only published in Italy and Russia, it was published in the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Estonia, China, Korea, Poland, Serbia, Spain.
Zwinger
Elena Kostyukovich published this novel in 2013 at the Moscow publishing house Korpus. The book has everything - intrigue, thriller, Frankfurt Book Fair and memories, which are based on the personal archive of the author. Leonid Rabinovich-Volynsky - grandfather Kostyukovich - one of the Monuments Men. In 1945, he organized, and then led the search for treasures of the Dresden art gallery. "Zwinger" is the name of the bombed, and after the restored palace. This is where the museum is located. The work shows that memory is the greatest gift that can sometimes turn into a difficult test. The hero of the novel is Victor Ziman. He is “sick” with memory. He is unable to break free from the power of the past. The story of his own grandfather, who found the treasures of the Dresden Gallery, gets a very extreme continuation during the book fair, which took place in 2005. In the whirlpool of adventures that captured Victor, there are migrant workers from Ukraine located in Europe, KGB agents, journalists representing free voices broadcast during the Cold War, Russian mafiosi colonizing the space. “Zwinger” is multifaceted - this is a dramatic panorama of the twentieth century, a crime thriller, professional reporting, autobiography. The book industry by the author is shown "from the inside" with great knowledge of the matter.
Opinion
Elena Kostyukovich is an author and
translator whose work is gratefully accepted by the public. Some readers regret that extremely high quality books are extremely rare. In the case of the novel “The Name of the Rose”, the translator is thanked for the lace syllable, which leaves a particularly pleasant aftertaste and makes you read the voluminous work to the end in one go. As for the Russian version of “Prague Cemetery”, readers say that the style of presentation is fascinating and it is impossible to postpone the book, although the plot itself is very unusual for Umberto Eco. Some people complain that the Russian translation appeared only when residents of dozens of countries had already appreciated the book.