Author: Peter J. Piaseckyj

“Mazeppa Rides Again!” Alexander Motyl. Independently published, 2023. 225 pp. ISBN: 979-8395022554 (paperback), $10.25. Alex Motyl is one of only a few authors with the requisite knowledge of history, literature, the arts and writing skills to be able to write this phantasmagoria. The story is based on Lord Byron’s poem Mazeppa in the universe known as the Romantic period, a time of great intellectual and artistic change in Europe. This tale is about a renowned knight’s troubles, following him through nonlinear time, locations, personages both real, literary and historical. The author adheres to the Romantics credo of individualism, emotion and…

“A Russian in Berlin,” by Alexander J. Motyl, Quamquam Quidquid Press, 2021. ISBN: 9798766292579 (softcover), $10, 166 pp, and ISBN: 9781234567890 (e-book), $2.99. Alexander Motyl is one of the few writers who can write a politico-philosophical satire with the bravura of a polymath author. Opening the book felt like entering John le Carré’s world in...