Joseph Brodsky and His Family

A book created by the nephew of a famous poet gives readers a unique opportunity to look at Brodsky through family memories.

You’ll be able to immerse yourself in the warm atmosphere of Leningrad’s “a room and a half,” where the future Nobel laureate found his roots, and learn about the family values that became the foundation of his work.

Joseph Brodsky is an outstanding twentieth-century poet. His life path includes eight years of education, a university career, exile to the North, and the Nobel Prize, his love for Leningrad and emigration, a trial for “parasitism,” and the discovery of new horizons of his native language abroad.

Often, a genius is first rejected, then becomes an outcast—and only afterward is his legacy carefully studied.

Brodsky claimed that attempts to return to the past are similar to searching for the meaning of life. This book, told by Mikhail Kelmovich, Brodsky’s nephew, aims to trace the poet’s fate through the prism of family life—where an atmosphere of unity and support prevailed. Not only family comfort and memories were shared, but also the “a room and a half” in Leningrad, which brought together parents and close ones.

These recollections allow the reader to touch the poet’s legacy through his family roots.