The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko: A Novel

Scott Stambach

Aug 2016 · Macmillan + ORM

About this ebook

In The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko, Scott Stambach presents a hilarious, heart-wrenching, and powerful debut novel about an orphaned boy who finds love and hope in a Russian hospital after Chernobyl.

Seventeen-year-old Ivan Isaenko is a life-long resident of the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. Born deformed yet mentally keen with a frighteningly sharp wit, strong intellect, and a voracious appetite for books, Ivan is forced to interact with the world through the vivid prism of his mind. For the most part, every day is exactly the same for Ivan, which is why he turns everything into a game, manipulating people and events around him for his own amusement. That is, until a new resident named Polina arrives at the hospital.

At first Ivan resents Polina. She steals his books. She challenges his routine. The nurses like her. She is exquisite. But soon he cannot help being drawn to her and the two forge a romance that is tenuous and beautiful and everything they never dared dream of. Before, he survived by being utterly detached from things and people. Now Ivan wants something more: Ivan wants Polina to live.

Ratings and reviews

Just read the book description. It's every bit as good as the summary says it is. Per the editor's note: "Yet every so often a story finds its way to me where the choice is not mine at all. To not package it, polish it, and let it flutter off into the world in its most honest form would be unforgivable. It would be unforgivable because there are corners of the world where voices cannot be heard; voices so tortured and yet so alive, so singular and yet so familiar, that they beseech the able for a path to hearts and minds. Ivan's is one of those stories."

About the author

SCOTT STAMBACH lives in San Diego where he teaches physics and astronomy at Grossmont and Mesa colleges. He also collaborates with Science for Monks, a group of educators and monastics working to establish science programs in Tibetan Monasteries throughout India. He has written about his experiences working with monks of Sera Jey monastery and has published short fiction in several literary journals including Ecclectica, Stirring, and Convergence. He is the author of The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko.