Download or read book Vasil Byka? written by Zina J. Gimpelevich and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2005 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Considered the best modern Belarusan writer and the last Eastern European literary dissident, Vasil Bykau (1924-2003) is referred to as the "conscience of a nation" for leading an intellectual crusade against Lukasenka's totalitarian regime. In exile from Belarus for several years, he was given refuge by Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia. Based on interviews that the author conducted with Bykau, this is the first English biography of his life. Gimpelevich also provides a literary criticism of his work, including The Ordeal and Pack of Wolves, and discusses the psychological realism of his early novels and his interest in existentialism." "The Soviet Union banned many of Vasil Bykau's novels, which often focus on the agonizing moral dilemmas faced by young officers during the horrors of war. Zina Gimpelevich's literary biography of the Belarusan anti-war and dissident writer describes the conditions under which Bykau lived in the former USSR and provides a literary and political history of Belarus from 1918-2003." --Book Jacket.