Yaroslav Melnyk


Yaroslav Yosypovych Melnyk is a Ukrainian and Lithuanian novelist, philosopher, and literary critic.

Early life

Melnyk was born in Smyha in 1959 and holds an undergraduate degree from Lviv University and a postgraduate degree from Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow.
In 1997, the novel Les Parias d’Eden was published by Robert Laffont Publishers in Paris. It received accolades from France’s literary critics and was praised by the country’s press.
His dystopian novel "Remote space" published in France in 2017, also had real success.
Critics call him a mystic and existential writer.
His work is in the compulsory curriculum of secondary schools in Ukraine.

Career

Melnik's books have been among the best Lithuanian and Ukrainian books of the year several times. The End of the World, Distant Space, and Masha, Or Post-fascism were all included in the Top Five Lithuanian Books in their respective publication years. Kelias į rojų was also named one of the Top Twelve Most Creative Lithuanian Books in 2010 and was nominated for the Europe Book Prize. His book, The Paris Diary, became a bestseller in Lithuania.
Melnik's dystopian novel "Remote Space" won BBC Book of the Year in 2013. It was published in French in 2017 as Espace lointain.
The novel was awarded a prize for the Book of the Year in France . Espace Lointain is being reissued in pocket-sized format in 2018.
His dystopian novel Masha, or the Fourth Reich is shortlisted for “Books of the Year 2014”.
In 2016 it was published in Ukraine, and became a bestseller. "In a futuristic novel with a sharp plot titled “Masha, or the Fourth Reich”, which was described by critics as a “shocking work about Nazis and intense love”, the author develops anti-utopian genre and analyzes the sins of humanity". In 2020, the novel was published in France by Actes Sud.
In 2019, the "Scandinavian" detective Adata Needle by J. Melnik was released, in which the investigation of an unusual sexual crime is accompanied by penetration into the depths of the human psyche. The novel raises the problem of religious sects and Freudian complexes.
he book has received a number of nominations.
His work is characterized by its constructivist and philosophical approach, by existential problems and intriguing combinations of science fiction and realism. This is typical for the book Rojalio kambarys.
Critics call him “a Neo-Symbolist of Lithuanian literature”

"Yaroslav Melnyk is the most cosmopolitan Ukrainian writer of the 21st century"
All of his books in Ukrainian prose were finalist's books of the “BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year”.

Personal life

He divides his time between Lithuania and France.

Selected works

  • Freedom, or Sin : philosophical essays. Vilnius: Petro ofsetas, 1996.
  • The Pariahs of Eden : novel. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1997.
  • The Grand Piano Room : long and short stories. Vilnius: Lithuanian Writers' Union publishers, 2004
  • The End of the World : long and short stories. Vilnius: Lithuanian Writers' Union publishers, 2006
  • A Very Strange House : 88 novels: philosophical miniatures. Vilnius: Lithuanian Writers' Union publishers, 2008
  • Remote space : novel. Vilnius: Lithuanian Writers' Union publishers, 2008
  • The Road to Paradise : surrealistic novel, long and short stories. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 2010.
  • Phone me, talk to me : novel, long and short stories. Kiev: Tempora, 2012.
  • The Paris Diary : essays. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2013
  • Remote Space : novel. Charkiv: Family Leisure Club, 2013
  • Masha, or Post-fascism : novel. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2013
  • Why I Do Not Get Tired of Living : long and short stories. Charkiv: Family Leisure Club, 2014
  • Anorexia : 22 short stories. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2013
  • Masha, or Post-fascism : novel. Lviv: The Old Lion Publishing House, 2016
  • Lords of heaven: novel. Vilnius: Alma littera, 2016
  • Remote space : novel. Paris: Agullo editions, 2017
  • Last day : Noir Press, 2018
  • Remote space : novel. Paris: Livre de Poche, 2018
  • Masha, or Post-fascism, 2020
  • Remote space : novel. Berlin: 2020