By Scott Stambach
Published by St. Martin’s Press
August 9, 2016
326 Pages
LCCN
2016007227
ISBN
9781250081865 (hardcover)
ISBN
9781250081889 (e-book)
Summary by Marta Bozdek
This
is Scott Stambach’s first novel, although he has previously published short fiction. It won the Alex Award (American Library
Association award for books that have special appeal to young adults) and was
nominated for the 2018 Dublin Literary Award. Ours is an adult reading group
but the book could be suitable for older teens as the key protagonist is a 17-year-old,
physically disabled young man who has lived his whole life in the Mazyr Hospital
for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus, where children who have been born with physical
deformities or acquire illnesses due to fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear
accident, live out all or part of their lives.
Through
his writing Mr. Stambach vividly carries us into the world of these children
and into the mind, and eventually heart, of Ivan Isaenko. One is impressed at how Mr. Stambach has
managed to understand, visualize and then convey to the reader the children and
their issues, the system and the staff who work in these facilities, without
having visited them. Apparently, he was
inspired to write this story after seeing the 2004 Academy Award winning
documentary, Chernobyl Heart by the Irish charity Chernobyl Children’s
Project International. He has stated that in this novel he wanted to give these
children a voice, to explore how we all strive for love and connection and how
we approach love and connection in different ways.
The novel
is ostensibly a diary or a memorial as Ivan calls it, written by him in a
writing marathon over seventy-seven hours from December 2 to 6 in 2005. This device creates a pacing for the novel
that draws you in and makes it compelling reading.
This
is how Ivan describes himself, “I’m seventeen years old, approximately male,
and I live in an asylum for mutant children.” “There are two things I’ve
learned over the years about my limits:
(A) I can eventually, with enough time, sweat and sometimes blood, learn
to do just about anything with only one arm (the only exception to this rule is
cutting a hard-boiled egg), and (B) if there is a God, then I should thank Him
for my thumb, since it is the only thing that makes (A) possible.” His descriptions of himself and the other
children in the hospital are unstintingly real, seemingly unkind and
occasionally mean spirited. He has grown into an intelligent young man who has
gained his knowledge of the world through voracious reading of books lovingly
supplied by his favourite nurse Natalya and his social skills (or lack of)
through daily life in the hospital. As
in the above self-descriptions, there is always humour mixed in with the
darkness.
In
the first part of the book, we learn, through Ivan’s eyes, about the hospital,
the temporary as well as long-term patients, the staff, the daily routines and
about Ivan as he describes his world and attempts to create some order and
meaning out of this circumscribed life.
But he is mostly an observer and a mischief maker for his own amusement. His attempts to find his own family, his
parents, particularly his mother, are both heart wrenching and humorous.
His
world changes when a new patient, Polina arrives. She is a recently orphaned 16-year old leukemia
patient who has arrived for treatment.
Ivan is drawn to her but does not know how to approach her and is very
afraid of doing so. Eventually, they do
establish a tenuous connection. They
challenge each other and eventually this connection grows into a beautiful
relationship and even love. Through this relationship, Ivan matures and grows,
even overcoming his blood phobia to offer life and love to Polina.
The
Epilogue provides a satisfying conclusion to the novel and our relationship
with Ivan.
Scott
Stambach’s debut novel is well worth reading and we look forward to future
books with his gifts of imagination, story-telling and honest examination of
life’s journeys.
Links
on the background of the author and novel
Chernobyl Heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ujAG_Ofj4M
Interview with Scot
Stambach:
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/avidreader/episodes/2016-09-12T13_34_43-07_00
Chernobyl
Nuclear Accident: For
further background on the Chernobyl nuclear accident and various assessments
and reports over the decades see https://www.unscear.org/unscear/en/chernobyl.html.
In particular, note the WHO and Chernobyl Forum reports.
You
may also be interested in reading the 2006 The Other Report on Chernobyl (TORCH)
http://www.chernobylreport.org/?p=summary
The
novel’s timeframe is 2005. Estimated # deaths from Chernobyl, 2005 https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/estimated-number-of-deaths-from-the-chernobyl-nuclear-disaster
This
site also contains comparisons between the Chernobyl and Fukashima nuclear
accidents.
This
spring, on the 35th anniversary of the explosion (April 26, 2021),
the culmination of an eight year study examining whether genetic mutations
resulting from radiation exposure are able to be passed on to offspring was
published.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/international-research-teams-explore-genetic-effects-chernobyl-radiation
