Hardly Ever Otherwise

Everything eventually reaches its appointed place in time and space. Maria Matios's dramatic family saga, Hardly Ever Otherwise, narrates the story of several western Ukrainian families during the last decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and expands upon the idea that "it isn't time that is important, but the human condition in time." In Matios's multi-tiered plot, the grand passions of ordinary people are illuminated under the caliginous light of an ethereal mysticism. Digressions on love, envy, transgression, together with atonement are woven into the story. Each character in this outstanding drama has an irrefutable alibi, a unique truth, and a private conflict with honor and duty. Her characters do not always act in accordance with logic and law books, as the laws of honor clash with the laws of the heart. And this is why it is hardly ever otherwise.Author BiographyMaria Matios was born in 1959, in the Ukraine. In 1982 she graduated with a degree in Ukrainian literature from Chernivtsi State University. She has worked as chief-secretary for the Bukovina Literary Journal, the Chernivtsi Writer's Union, and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. From 2005 to 2010 she served as deputy-chairman for the Shevchenko National Prize. Her first poems were published when she was fifteen years old. In 1992 she published her first prose in Kiev Magazine. She has gone on to write seven books of poetry and five books of prose. This has earned her the unofficial title of being Ukraine's most prolific female author, and the official titles of Chevalier of the Ukrainian Order of Merit and Honorary Citizen of Chernivtsi. In 2007, the novel Hardly Ever Otherwise earned Matios the Grand Prix at the Coronation of Words Competition. The title was also named book of the year. Her highly influential novel, Sweet Darusia, was named the best Ukrainian novel written in the fifteen year span after Ukrainian Independence in 1991, and earned Matios the Shevchenko National Prize in 2005. Her works have been translated into many languages including Serbian, Romanian, Russian, Polish, Croatian, Belorussian, Azerbaijani, Japanese, and Chinese. Awards and Prizes: 2008, Book of the Year â Moskalitsya: Mother of Maritsa, Wife of Christopher Columbus 2007, Book of the Year â Hardly Ever Otherwise 2007, Grand Prix at Coronation of Wordsâ Hardly Ever Otherwise 2005, Book of the Year â Sweet Darusia Besides the Shevchenko National Prize she is the recipient of the Blagovist Prize, the Vladimir Bablyak Publishing Prize, and the K. Galkin Prize.