Is it possible to cultivate fundamental human values if you live in a totalitarian state? A teacher who instigates the school theatre sets out to prove that it is. But while the pupils rehearse Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies under her ever-vigilant eye, Soviet life makes its brutal adjustments. This can be called a book about love, the tough kind of love that gets you through life, and death.

Little Zinnobers is especially fascinating for British readers as we see Shakespeare’s famous sonnets and plays are touchingly brought to life by the Russian children and their gifted teacher, the novel’s heroine. The teacher applies some of the playwright’s satire to the socio-political situation of the USSR, using her English lessons to teach her students life’s broader lessons, too.

Echoes of the Soviet Union can be felt in our own society today: the people find themselves increasingly at odds with the politicians’ hypocrisy, ‘big brother’ is watching us through thousands of CCTVs, and political correctness determines what we can and cannot say. It is these subtle undercurrents which help make Chizhova’s novel particularly pertinent to today’s readership. Apart from being a magnificently written, first-rate story, Little Zinnobers is unique in that it goes beyond the realm of politics or fiction to shed a new light on the relevance of British literary heritage today.

Published with the support of the Institute for Literary Translation, Russia.

Carol Ermakova

Book translations