WING BY MARINA AND SERGEY DYACHENKO, TRANSLATED BY ANATOLY BELILOVSKY
"In the evenings, too, the windows of the building opposite came alive with lights. Thousands of lives concealed behind dark windows now displayed their secrets through gaps left by the carelessly thrown curtains. In the evenings Yegor rolled his wheelchair over the balcony threshold back into the living room, retrieved his father's Navy binoculars, and returned to watch his neighbors . Chandeliers and wallpaper, t-shirts and underwear drying on clotheslines, dirty tile walls, housecoats, kisses, fights, homework, shadows, winking blue eyes of television screens, birthdays, dishes and shelves, dinners and suppers, infidelities, tears."
WING is the eleventh of our announced features, originally written in Russian, now translated by Anatoly Belilovsky for publication in The Needle Drops... Volume One. With Short Fiction, we explore the various subgenres of horror in creative and unexpected ways.
In a society which has no place for children like him, Yegor's physical disability confines him to a tiny space, yet it cannot confine his curiosity, or his mind, or his desire for friendship. Can he master laws of physics to his purpose? Or will success be the fruit of his indomitable spirit?
Can he master laws of physics to his purpose? Or will success be the fruit of his indomitable spirit?
Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, a former actress and a former psychiatrist, are co-authors of thirty novels and numerous short stories and screenplays. They were born in Ukraine, lived in Russia, and now live in the United States. Their books have been translated into several foreign languages and awarded multiple literary and film prizes. Marina and Sergey are the recipients of the Award for Best Authors (Eurocon 2005) and Prix Imaginales, Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire, Prix Elbakin.net, and Prix Planète SF Des Blogueurs (2020). Their novels Vita Nostra and Daughter from the Dark, both translated by Julia Meitov Hersey, are published in English by HarperVoyager.
Their web page is https://dyachenkowriters.com/ and their Twitter feed is @DyachenkoW.
Anatoly Belilovsky was born in a city that went through six or seven owners in the last century, all of whom used it to do a lot more than drive to church on Sundays; he is old enough to remember tanks rolling through it on their way to Czechoslovakia in 1968. After being traded to the US for a shipload of grain and a defector to be named later, he learned English from Star Trek reruns, apparently well enough to be admitted into SFWA in spite of chronic cat deficiency.
He has sold original and translated stories and poems to NATURE, F&SF, Analog, Asimov's, Daily SF, Podcastle, Kasma, UFO, Stupefying Stories, Cast of Wonders, and other markets. His Twitter feed @loldoc is equally divided between punditry and puns.
