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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Aug 2016, 336 pages
Paperback:
Sep 2017, 336 pages
Book Reviewed by:
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The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko is comic and staggeringly tragic, often both in a single sentence… A grittier, Eastern European, more grown-up The Fault in Our Stars." – Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child
Seventeen-year-old Ivan Isaenko is a life-long resident of the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. Born deformed, yet mentally keen with a frighteningly sharp wit, strong intellect, and a voracious appetite for books, Ivan is forced to interact with the world through the vivid prism of his mind. For the most part, every day is exactly the same for Ivan, which is why he turns everything into a game, manipulating people and events around him for his own amusement. That is until a new resident named Polina arrives at the hospital. At first, Ivan resents Polina. She steals his books. She challenges his routine. The nurses like her. She is exquisite. But soon, he cannot help being drawn to her and the two forge a romance that is tenuous and beautiful and everything they never dared dream of. Before, he survived by being utterly detached from things and people. Now, Ivan wants something more: Ivan wants Polina to live.
PART ONE
The Count Up
Currently, the clock reads 11:50 in the P.M.
It is the second day of December.
The year is 2005.
I
The Anesthetization of Ivan Isaenko
Dear Reader, whom I do not know, who may never be, I write not for you but for me. I write because I can't sleep. I write because Polina is dead.
Currently, I'm drunk from three capfuls of vodka on a three-day-empty stomach. I have Nurse Natalya to thank for this. She is the only one who knows what I've lost. She is the closest thing I've ever had to a mother, and I know she thinks of me as a son. Like any good mother, she watches over me. For the last two days, she's checked on me every fifteen minutes. She checked on me seven times tonight, and every time I was wide awake. On the eighth time, she discreetly entered my room with a bottle of Stoli.
"Open your mouth, Ivan," she said. "It'll help you sleep."
She poured ...
Stambach brings the grace of human nature to such a level that I found myself engrossed from page one. There are so many good novels just waiting to be read, that I rarely read one twice. I will make an exception with this novel. Stambach is that rare author that can capture the beauty of the human spirit in the most ugly of places and people...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse First Impression Reviewers).
Bradley Somer, author of Fishbowl
An enchantingly acerbic and endearingly charming story about love, hope and humanity in the face of death; truly a tender and thoughtful reflection on our universal malady. Carolina De Robertis, author of The Gods of Tango
An extraordinarily brave and original debut. Ivan is an unforgettable narrator, and his story ripples with intelligence, humor, heartbreak, and humanity. Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child
The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko is comic and staggeringly tragic, often both in a single sentence… Ivan Isaenko is one of the most surprising narrators I have encountered- witty, adolescent, well-read, at times quite vulgar, and confined to a life that seems nearly unlivable, until he discovers that even at Mazyr Hospital, love is possible. Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project
Compelling, intelligent and moving. The love story is executed with unflinching honesty and dark humor. A masterful novel. Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs
Ivan Isaenko is a beautiful, heartbreaking, and hilarious novel whose closest literary relative might be One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ... will appeal to any reader with a beating heart - a true gem. Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, National Book Award Finalist and author of Madeleine Is Sleeping
Only a writer with considerable heart and imagination could transform a hospital for post-Chernobyl fallout kids into a captivating, complex, nearly magical world. Scott Stambach has done exactly that... He is an original in every sense of the word, and his story is a marvelous one. -The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko deals with the aftermath of Chernobyl and is set in a hospital in Belarus.
While most of us think of Belarus as a part of the now fragmented Soviet Union, the country has a colorful history of being handed back and forth between Poland and Russia for centuries. Belarus was part of Poland (which borders Belarus on the West) until Poland was partitioned after a series of wars towards the end of the 18th century and Belarus became part of Russia. The early twentieth century saw more conflict. Taking advantage of Russia's preoccupation with the First World War, Belarus decided to break away and become independent while still under the protection of German forces.
Unfortunately this newly established...
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