Join us for an evening with Yelena Moskovich to celebrate the publication of her queer anthem for doomed youth, Nadezhda in the Dark. In conversation with Alice Pfeiffer.

On the longest night of a Berlin winter two women sit side-by-side. Both fled the Soviet Union as children, one from Ukraine, and her girlfriend from Russia.

A thigh shifts, fingers fold in, a shoulder is lowered. Neither speak.

As silence weighs heavy between them, decades of Ukrainian and Russian history resurface, from Yiddish jokes, Kyiv’s DIY queer parties and the hidden messages in Russian pop music, to resistance in Odessa, raids in Moscow clubs and the death of their friend.

As the requiem inside the narrator’s head expands within the darkness of the room, she asks the all-important question: what does it mean to have hope?

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Yelena Moskovich is the author of four novels, Virtuoso, The Natashas (both Serpent’s Tail), A Door Behind A Door (Influx Press), and Nadezhda in the Dark (Footnote). Her work has been long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize, awarded the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and named in the Guardian, Telegraph, and Irish Times Books of the Year. She emigrated to the US with her family as Jewish refugees in 1991, then again on her own to Paris in 2007 where she currently resides.

Alice Pfeiffer is a fashion journalist. She holds a master's degree in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics and specializes in gender-related issues in the fashion industry. She has collaborated with publications such as the New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, as well as Dazed & Confused and i-D UK.