Writer Svetlana Satchkova Presents Her New Novel at Seton Hall University

A prominent Russian-American writer and journalist, Svetlana Satchkova, will visit Seton Hall at 6:30 - 8 p.m., Thursday, November 5, , in Fahy Hall 236, to present her latest book The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia (Melville House, 2026). The event is free and open to the public!

Svetlana Satchkova is a Russian-born novelist, journalist and translator based in New York. Raised in Moscow, she worked as a journalist and magazine editor before moving to the United States in 2016. She is the author of three novels in Russian and now The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia (Melville House, 2026), her acclaimed English-language debut, which explores artistic freedom, political repression and the moral choices confronting individuals in Putin’s Russia. Her journalism and essays have appeared in The Independent, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, and other publications. Satchkova holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. She also served as a Research Fellow at the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University.

The Undead is a layered and sharply observant portrait of an artist caught in the machinery of state power, and the choices one faces in a system where even indifference can be dangerous. Written with the intimate insight of an émigré from Putin's Russia, The Undead is both a compelling narrative and a chilling reflection of how repression operates today, not just against dissidents, but against anyone.

Praise for Svetlana Satchkova's novel:

[An] exquisite balance between contentment and foreboding, tranquility and chaos.

— Vogue

Chillingly examines the Russian government’s stranglehold on the arts and media industries .... a convincing cautionary tale of the dangers of political apathy.

—Publishers Weekly

[A] brisk, vivid page-turner.

—The Milwaukee Shepherd Express

Compelling and eerily timely ... There is a moral urgency at work here, a call to remain true to one’s principles, but also a warning that such choices are tough and exhausting. The ending of Satchkova’s uncompromising novel provides a glimpse of a better future.

—The Russian Review

There is nothing supernatural about the zombies in Svetlana Satchkova’s savvy, frightening novel. They are all of us, wherever we are, who keep looking away when authoritarian forces crush expression. Witty and unsettling, "The Undead" is a cautionary tale about, among other things, never quite admitting where the danger lies until it’s too late.

—Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask

"The Undead" is a courageous and witty book about art and politics. With keen insight and wry humor, Svetlana Satchkova evokes a devastating artistic and moral reckoning. This fascinating, propulsive novel will stay with me.

—Helen Phillips, author of The Need

"The Undead" has the force of an undertow, pulling us relentlessly away from safety. Svetlana Satchkova has written a gripping, haunting portrait of a world coming undone.

—Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing

In "The Undead," the career and well-being of Maya, a young filmmaker in Moscow, unravel in the most bizarre, realistic way, showcasing the insidious, absurd nature of a totalitarian state. Deeply informative and engrossing, "The Undead" examines how bizarre and horrific human nature can evolve under the pressure of the desire to live unharmed rather than free. A moving examination of the meaning of home, the horror of a dictatorship, the hilarity and joy of movie-making, and one woman's political coming of age in Putin's Russia. Truly important reading for our times.

—Paula Bomer, author of The Stalker

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of History, Russian and East European Studies Program, Slavic Club, Center for Faculty Development and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Categories: Arts and Culture, Nation and World