Jana Gulciajeva’s debut novel “Linea lateralis.” The book was published as part of a joint project of the International Union of Belarusian Writers and the Kamunikat publishing house.

“The disease is transmitted through the language of denial: it passes to the next generation through secrets, accusations and lies.” – These were the words Mira Zhdanovich heard at a meeting of the Adult Children of Alcoholics Anonymous (ACAA). However, Mira never attended: one sunny day she met a stranger who offered her an alternative path to self-liberation. A family saga, a socio-psychological drama, sketches and memoirs, an expatriate’s lament for a lost home where hearts were broken, where happiness never lived…. or perhaps it did live after all?

Yana Gultsiaeva is a translator, a 2017 graduate of the Department of Polish Language and Literature at the Philological Faculty of Belarusian State University. One of the winners of the “10+10: Minsk” short story contest (2018), she is a graduate of the School of Young Writers (2020). Since 2021 she has been living in France, where she translates Belarusian and French poetry, short prose and drama.

“My word serves only truth and only love. Unraveling a ball of thread, I think: love is a relative concept, everyone has their own truth, and it is often impossible to unite and reconcile love and truth. But after unraveling the ball of thread to the end, holding its beginning in my hand, I am once again convinced that love and truth are very simple, unambiguous things, especially when they are reconciled. To be free with them – that is the eternal difficulty…”.