Book "The Boat of Despair"

Design and layout of the uncensored edition of Uladzimir Karatkievič's novel

While the 23 pages long novel by Uladzimir Karatkievič was being prepared for publication, it turned into a 148 pages long book which presents all censorial and editorial corrections in a detailed, accurate and interesting manner and highlights moments when the author was mastering his words and language. For this purpose, special graphic symbols reflecting certain corrections were developed.

The overall design resembles a modern adaptation of traditional paper cutting

This approach helps to reflect the deeply national idea of the novel. A lot of symbols and mystic have been reconsidered while designing the book, therefore numerous creatures on the pages guide the reader to the land of the Boat of Despair.
The photos in the book, many of which are published for the first time, are also in paper-cut frames. The back cover features the Tree of Life which is an ancient symbol and the main theme of the Belarusian paper cutting. There is a Belarusian lark on this tree because the main character saw these birds on the land when he left the Death Kingdom.