Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Belarusian by Jim & Ella Dingley – published June 2026

Ryna, the main character, is an alcoholic. The novel begins with her trying to open a bottle of wine in the ladies toilets on Warsaw station. She has been sacked from her job at a care home in Germany, for being inebriated, and is heading back to her home village in Belarus where her grandmother, Darafeya, has just died. As she travels the many miles through swamp and featureless terrain, the imprint of war is evident with graves and memorials commonplace, as well the skeletons of old tanks.
Darafeya comes from a female line of women with special healing powers, called whisperers or witches. Hers was a world of superstitions and herbal remedies, held on to by local villagers who tell stories of other acts by witches and of attacks by wolves leaning into local folklore.

As much as Ryna is the main character, the book is really about Darafeya, who lived through two wars and nine changes of power in the country. Over the days of her mourning it is a time for Ryna to remember the stories of the war that her grandmother told her.

Certainly the novel has weaker elements, it is not plot driven, and the towards the end it fades away rather than goes out with momentum. But it is a really good example of world literature as its strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, the insight into life, culture and history of a rural Belarusian village.

It’s a wonderful piece of translation by Ella and Jim Dingley, and credit also to Bullaun Press whose mission is to publish this sort of translated literature.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5