Irkadura

Ksenia Anske

Oct 2014 · Ksenia Anske

About this ebook

"My mama became a catfish when I was two, on the day I stopped talking."

Neglected since birth by her mother, Irina Myshko hasn’t spoken a word for most of her short Soviet life. Outcast as a mute idiot and abused by her mother's boyfriends, she escapes into an alternate reality where true natures show and people are revealed as the beasts they are. Pregnant, homeless, and penniless, Irina has to make a choice — learn to live in this splintered world or descend into madness.

Ratings and reviews

Irkadura is a heart-rending story with characters who live and breathe. Their words and thoughts shook me, then calmed me, then took me into straight into moving spheres of emotion. The mouse scurried quickly into worlds I've known must exist, but she made me follow her. Ksenia Anske writes in color and sound, with such vibrancy and honesty, that I cannot help but know with all of my senses what I did not know before reading this excellent, excellent book.

You know who you are, Irina Myshko? You’re not a mouse and you’re not an eagle, you’re just a dumb mute dura. You’ve never talked and you never will. (Locations 2920-2921). Irkadura is not dumb, she just said the wrong word at the wrong time to the wrong woman (Locations 917-918) and at the age of two was scarred into a PTSD like silence. Her silence travels with her, affecting her life and how people view her. Most think of her as crazy, stupid, without opinion or protest, or as an invalid. The government has issued her a certificate of disability, which she uses to get a job at a local theatre. Irina is not just mute, but she refers to people as animals. Her mama is a catfish, the man who raped her is a boar and the boy who she is entranced by is a butterfly. Irina herself is a mouse, a timid creature that is stomped and crushed and bitten. What is Irina's reality? She escapes as much as possible from the unbelievable horrors of her life through the animals that she imagines inhabiting her environment. Her reality is so horrible and unreal that the only way she can escape is by doing something drastic, to take her mind away. For this, most think she is stupid or crazy.

Irkadura is a fantastic novel filled with characters you want to root for, hateable characters you want to destroy and moments of revenge that made me cheer aloud as I read. Sometimes my jaw dropped as I read and there were moments that made me want to hide. Irkadura is terrifying. It made me uncomfortable. I loved it.

About the author

Ksenia was born in Moscow, Russia, and came to US in 1998 not knowing English, having studied architecture and not dreaming that one day she'd be writing. She lives in Seattle with her boyfriend and their combined three kids in a house that they like to call The Loony Bin.