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Before prison, author of The Zekameron Maxim Znak worked as a lawyer for the Belarusian political opposition, until he was detained in the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections (when serving president Lukashenko was re-elected for a sixth term, despite blatant electoral fraud). Today, you will find Znak in Vitsba Detention Centre No 3, serving out his ten year prison sentence. 


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The Zekameron, like Boccaccio’s canonical text, takes the form of 100 stories in confinement— however, Znak’s book is closer to Beckett than Boccaccio. Ever alert to the matter-of-fact realities of prison life, the book is also a celebration of pranks, fantasy, non-sensical bureaucracy, the absurd lengths that prisoners will go to in order to make life more bearable for themselves. Despite its very bleak context, this is a fundamentally optimistic book, engaging comically, yet honestly, with what it means to be human. Znak’s book represents a major coup not only for his family and friends, but for all artists living under oppressive regimes struggling for freedom of expression.


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This session is a collaboration between Amnesty International and the People’s Consulate of Belarus in Scotland, whose members introduce the book and read selections from it. Chaired by Cathy Crawford, Portobello Branch of Amnesty.

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This event is free to attend. Tickets can be collected in person from Portobello Library on Rosefield Avenue.

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