Photo by Dasha Murashka
Svetlana Satchkova is the author of the new novel The Undead. She was born in Russia and moved to the United States in 2016.
Q: What inspired you to write The Undead, and how did you create your character Maya?
A: I started with the story of a friend of mine from Moscow who, like Maya, gave up journalism in favor of film school. She was considered a genius there and began filming her debut feature straight out of graduate school.
But after the filming was complete, something strange happened: her producer began stalling on the project’s completion without ever explaining why. Then, after two years, it became clear that the film would never be finished.
This was a personal tragedy for her. She has never written or filmed anything since, watching her former classmates go on to make impressive careers in film. I wanted to explore this story, which felt rich with questions about who succeeds in art and the roles luck, determination, and talent play in that process.
As I was writing, though, I kept thinking about how this friend, along with many other people I knew in Moscow, remained completely apolitical, choosing to ignore what was happening around them as the Russian state grew more repressive and the space for personal freedom continued to shrink.
I couldn’t understand this attitude, having grown so afraid of the direction the regime was taking that I chose to leave my birth country for good.
While I was working on the novel, a high-profile political trial took place in Russia: two women, Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petryichuk, were prosecuted ostensibly for a play they had staged, but in reality for their oppositional political views. I realized that I wanted to write about this as well, and their story became part of Maya’s story.
The novel ultimately explores the dangers creative people face under an authoritarian regime and the different strategies they adopt in an attempt to keep themselves safe.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: It occurred to me almost immediately, once I realized that Maya would be making a zombie movie. But the title also functions as a metaphor, which many early readers have picked up on right away.
For me, it signifies everyone living under Putin’s regime, who, of necessity, exist in a kind of half-alive state, willfully numbing themselves to the atrocities the government commits and to the compromises one has to make with one’s conscience in order to participate in the system at all—sometimes even taking money from the regime while still thinking of oneself as a decent person.
Q: The writer Julia Phillips said of the book, “This novel, hilarious, disturbing, and remarkable, shows us Russia and America, the personal and the political, what's happening now and what's waiting in the darkness ahead.” What do you think of that description?
A: In The Undead, I was trying to tell a very specific story set in a particular place and time, without consciously drawing parallels to what’s happening in America. But as it has become increasingly clear, such parallels can indeed be drawn.
I also wanted the novel to be entertaining and accessible, rather than dense or tedious, as books that take on dark subjects sometimes are. I hope I succeeded, though that’s not really for me to decide.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: I had no idea how it would end. As I mentioned, I began with the story of my friend, the filmmaker, whose experience offered no real resolution. It was a story of someone who had given up, not especially uplifting, and not even one in which the protagonist learns something through the journey.
Early on, I told myself, “I’ll figure something out,” because it was clear to me that fiction is different from life and that, for the novel to work, I would need to invent a more satisfying ending.
As I kept writing, however, the book took on a political dimension, and an entirely different plotline and ending presented themselves.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on another novel set in Russia. It will be more sweeping in terms of time, spanning roughly 20 years. It’s also more challenging for me, as it explores a milieu I’m not familiar with and therefore requires a great deal of research. The book will be longer as well. I’m still in the early stages, having written three chapters out of what will likely be 10 or more.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’ve noticed that not everyone understands the humor in The Undead, or perhaps the idea that one can write about serious, heavy subjects and still laugh in the process. This may be cultural.
Recently, at a doctor’s appointment, our conversation somehow turned to his residency years. He told me about a fellow resident who would laugh or joke whenever something terrible happened, and he couldn’t understand what was wrong with her.
I explained that laughter can be one of the most effective coping strategies, and that there’s a rich Eastern European literary tradition of humor that grapples with the heaviest subjects imaginable: war, hunger, death.
I wasn’t consciously drawing on that tradition while writing The Undead, but I think I’m participating in it simply by virtue of having been born and raised in that culture.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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