A conversation in Ashdod
Rubén David González Gallego grew up in Soviet residential institutions. Born in Moscow in 1968, he writes in Russian and has lived in Israel since 2014. At Duna Community Centre in Ashdod, he leads our philosophy club. On 10 January 2026 he welcomed readers to Duna, talked with them and signed the books they had brought from home or bought that evening.
Visit the author’s website ↗Freaks at the philosophy club
Our philosophy club discussed Freaks, an American film directed by Tod Browning in 1932. The story unfolds in a travelling circus. When the trapeze artist Cleopatra learns that Hans, a fellow performer, has inherited a fortune, she plots to marry him for his money. His friends in the troupe come to his defence. To continue the conversation, we invited readers to discuss Red Torpedo, Mara Chiaretti’s 2006 documentary in which Rubén Gallego tells his own story.
Freaks in the AFI Catalog ↗Three books to start with
White on Black (2002) tells of childhood in Soviet institutions through short scenes of friendship, cruelty and unexpected kindness. In I Am Sitting on the Shore (2005), two friends find in chess and conversation a world they can share. Eternal Guest (2018) is a novel in stories about the search for a place to call home. Harcourt published Marian Schwartz’s English translation of White on Black in 2006. Gallego’s Russian archive also includes essays and reviews, among them My Body.
Read excerpts and essays in Russian ↗The translator’s bibliography ↗World editions in the author’s catalogue ↗Recognition and the stage
White on Black won the 2003 Russian Booker. In 2004 Gallego received the Oleg Tabakov Prize. Marina Brusnikina’s stage version of White on Black premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre on 9 June 2004. In Jerusalem, Irina Gorelik directed the Mikro Theatre production מטומטם כמו המלט, based on Gallego’s writing. In 2019 the European Chess Union awarded its Golden Pawn for best European book of fiction to Chess, the international title of I Am Sitting on the Shore.
Tabakov Prize laureates ↗Moscow Art Theatre archive ↗Mikro Theatre production ↗European Chess Union · Golden Pawn ↗Two documentary films
Letter to My Mother (Spain, 2003), directed by Algis Arlauskas, follows Gallego’s family story. The film won the Grand Prix at Moscow’s Breaking Down Barriers festival in 2004. In Red Torpedo (Italy, 2006, 52 minutes), director Mara Chiaretti lets Gallego tell his own story. The film screened in the Extra programme at the Rome Film Festival and received the international Gogol Prize.
Red Torpedo · Filmitalia catalogue ↗Casa del Cinema on the Gogol Prize ↗Letter to My Mother · library programme ↗Radio and audiobook
BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week featured an abridged reading of White on Black during the week of 20–24 March 2006. In the Russian audiobook, Efim Shifrin reads the book and Gallego reads his own preface. Radio Liberty’s archive preserves a 2001 interview with Gallego and a reading of his story Volga.
A BBC listener’s account, March 2006 ↗Audiobook and narrators ↗Radio Liberty · 2001 interview ↗