Episode 234 with Sasha Vasilyuk, Author of Your Presence is Mandatory, and Master Chronicler of Fiction that Parallels and Expands Upon Real-Life Secrecy, Grief, Trauma, and Shared Humanity

Notes and Links to Sasha Vasilyuk’s Work

 

   For Episode 234, Pete welcomes Sasha Vasilyuk, and the two discuss, among other topics, her childhood in Ukraine, Russia, and then San Francisco, her experiences with multilingualism, early formative and transformative reading, seeds for Your Presence is Mandatory, including the ways in which Ukrainian Jewish grandfather’s experiences informed the book, gender balances in the USSR post-WWII, humanity and the ways it’s expressed in the book, connections between contemporary separatist movements and World War II, and salient themes like grief, trauma, and the ways in which secrecy affects generations. 

 

 

   Sasha Vasilyuk is a journalist and author of the debut novel Your Presence is Mandatory about a Ukrainian Jewish WWII soldier and his family who reckon with his lifelong secrecy, which is coming out in 2024.

Sasha has written a lot about Eastern Europe, art, culture, travel and business. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, NBC, Harper’s Bazaar, BBC Radio, USA Today, KQED, San Francisco Chronicle, The Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, and Narrative. She has won several writing awards, including the Solas Award for Best Travel Writing and the NATJA award.

Besides writing, she has founded a leading wedding PR company, the first coworking space in San Francisco, and the first U.S. magazine for Russian-speaking emigre teens. She also spent a year traveling alone around the world.

Sasha is a graduate of Lowell High School, UC Berkeley (BA in Comparative Literature and Italian Studies), and New York University (MA in Journalism). She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children.

 

Buy Your Presence is Mandatory

 

 

Sasha's Website

 

Review of Your Presence is Mandatory in Los Angeles Review of Books

 

 

At about 2:55, Sasha talks about her language background, early life 

At about 6:00, Sasha talks about early reading through talking about a trip to her San Francisco childhood home

At about 9:00, Pete tests Sasha’s British English and NorCal slang and Sasha talks about her experiences in ESL in school

At about 10:40, Sasha responds to Pete’s questions about if and how Russian enhances/affects her English writing

At about 13:15, Sasha shares her thoughts on A Woman Warrior and other formative and transformative texts

At about 16:20, Sasha highlights contemporary and not so contemporary books that challenge and inspire her, including Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate and Yaa Gaasi’s Homegoing

At about 19:10, Sasha shares a cool story about the origin of her cover

At about 21:35, Sasha gives background on the book’s seeds

At about 26:20, Sasha shares how Masha and other voices are important in the book

At about 27:20, Pete provides some of the book’s exposition and how a famous Yevtushenko poem is related 

At about 28:45, Pete wonders about atheism and its connection to the Soviet Jews and Christians featured in her book

At about 32:10, Pete provides information on key characters in the book, especially Yefim and Niña, and Sasha addresses the note from the book that is a catalyst for important events in the book

At about 34:00, The two discuss Baltic/Soviet Union history that informs a lot of the book’s key events

At about 38:45, Sasha discusses the peculiarities of gender balance (due to the massive death from the WWII-era) that inform the relationship between Yefim and Nina and so many in the book and in real-life

At about 42:55, The two discuss Stalino/Donetsk, which features in the book prominently 

At about 44:20, Pete reflects on how a possible extramarital affair is so suggestive of the secrecy of the post WWII Soviet Union

At about 45:00, Pete’s wondering about Yefim’s avoiding admittance of his Jewishness and how it paralleled Sasha’s grandfather; her response deals with a key question that propelled 

At about 50:20, Pete compliments Sasha’s fresh take on the events of history/the book 

At about 51:40, Pete highlights a key and well-drawn scene that takes place within Germany, and Sasha recounts her experiences in traveling in Berlin and Germany as a whole, and how humanity and nuance come into play 

At about 57:20, Pete brings up The Book Thief in praising the ways in which Sasha portrays humanity and the closeness of history 

At about 59:15, Sasha discusses her “post-pub weird mental state” and future projects 

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   I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I’m looking forward to the partnership! Look out for my interview with José Vadi sometime around May 17.

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    Please tune in for Episode 235 with Lindsay Hunter, whose novel, DON’T KISS ME, was published by FSG Originals in 2013 and was named one of Amazon’s 10 Best Books of the Year: Short Stories; her latest novel, Eat Only When You’re Hungry, was a Book of the Month Club selection, a finalist for the 2017 Chicago Review of Books Fiction Award, and a 2017 NPR Great Read. She has been a great help to me as the marvelous host of the podcast I’m a Writer But; her fifth book, 2023’s Hot Springs Drive, was named one of the 12 Best Thrillers of the Year by the Washington Post. 

The episode will go live on May 22. 

Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.