THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fyodor Dostoevskiy wrote many of his novels at his home in the Russian city of St Petersburg. So it was only fitting that the 65th edition of ‘Oru Sankeerthanam Pole,’ the novel by Perumbadavam Sreedharan, which has Dostoevsky as hero, was released at this house which is now a museum.
Sreedharan was in Russia recently for the shooting of a docufiction based on ‘Oru Sankeerthanam Pole.’ Roy Charitable Foundation chairman Cherian Eappen released the record-breaking 65th edition by handing a copy to Natalia Ashimbayeva, the director of the Dostoevsky Museum.
Kerala has adopted Dostoevsky through ‘Oru Sankeerthanam Pole’, Ashimbayeva said. That a book has entered its 65th edition is a rare phenomenon. Sreedharan has honoured Malayalam and the Russian literature through his work, she said.
Dostoevsky was a writer who had influenced him from a very young age, Perumbadavam Sreedharan said. “I feel happy visiting the place where he lived and died, and that the 65th edition of my novel was released at the house where the souls of Dostoevsky and Anna (his wife) rest,” Sreedharan said.
Cherian Eappen said that the Roy Charitable Foundation was interested in bringing out a Russian translation of ‘Oru Sankeerthanam Pole.’ First published in September 1993, ‘Oru Sankeerthanam Pole,’ has broken all publishing records in Malayalam. The book, which retells Dostoevsky’s love for Anna, also won for Perumbadavam the Vayalar Award in 1996. Ratheesh C Nair, Honorary Consul of Russia in Thiruvananthapuram, presided over the book release function.