Description

This book is the voice of Maxim Znak, a Belarusian lawyer and writer and political prisoner, who has been without the right to correspond and meet with his family and defense attorneys since February 9, 2023. As of early May 2024, neither his family nor his lawyer have any information about Maxim for more than 450 days. In international law, such detention is classified as torture and referred to by the term “incommunicado.” In the practice of international human rights mechanisms, it is placed on a par with enforced disappearances – one of the most serious human rights violations.

The texts included in this collection were written during the first year of his detention in the detention center (AWA), when creative activity behind bars and the submission of manuscripts were still possible. Some of the works are published for the first time. Despite the circumstances, in a cramped cell and difficult conditions, Maxim preserved the fortitude and creative freedom that allowed him to go beyond the bars into a wide space, combining irony with seriousness, lightness with depth, lyricism with everyday life.

And – despite the circumstances – the reader of this book can become part of conversations with Maxim, visit him in his cell to joke about sorrows or discuss high matters over a cup of tea. Or simply read the lyrics and sing the songs to Maxim’s words, giving them the voice they are deprived of today.