At a time when tensions between East and West are mounting, New Zealand journalist and translator Peter D Campbell has published a compelling and revealing novel exploring everyday life in Russia and examining the impact of civil war.
“The novel examines the personal cost and the political manipulation which is involved in every war, but it also looks at the personal motivations which can lead to war in the first place. For this reason In My Brother’s Shadow is very relevant today.”
Peter D Campbell, completed his honours degree in Russian at the University of Canterbury in 2003 has turned his fascination with the distant and contradictory country into a career. Receiving first class honours, he studied at St. Petersburg State University before becoming a translator. Over the past ten years Peter has been involved in some of Russia’s largest projects including working on projects for redeveloping Sochi for the 2014 Olympics as well as translating aviation histories, an encyclopaedia and working for the State Hermitage Museum – one of the world’s largest art museums.
“Working as a translator, especially in Russia, has given me opportunities that I would never have expected. With translation work, each new order opens the window into a different world which is endlessly fascinating,” says Peter.
On August 1, Peter released his first novel In My Brother’s Shadow set in former Yugoslavia and Russia. The novel challenges the conventional notions about violence in society and raises pertinent questions about the role of the international community in conflicts and explores how political decisions have real, long lasting consequences, regardless of our distance from a conflict.
“The situation in the Ukraine at the moment is synonymous to what happened in the Balkans in the 1990s. We have very deliberate propaganda campaigns that are dividing the local population, causing fear and resulting in violence. On the eve of the centenary of World War I (which was prompted by events in the Balkans) my novel is a timely reminder of how political motives led to bloodshed which might otherwise have been unnecessary.”
In My Brother’s Shadow is a very human portrayal of everybody caught up in conflict and offers a glimpse into life on the other side – both in war torn Bosnia and in contemporary Russia.
While the novel has a fictional plot, all of the events described are taken from real life, based on personal interviews with combat soldiers, field trips to locations described in the book, historical and archival research, and personal experience.
The novel was simultaneously released with a light hearted satire about the role of cats in history, entitled Purrfect Tales, a detective novella, and two translations from Russia’s masterful writer Alexander Pushkin.
The author is intending to publish a book on language acquisition based on his experiences studying and teaching foreign languages, and training professional translators.
For more information visit: www.PeterDCampbell.com