Michael Naydan explains the title of novel

Michael M. Naydan, English translator of Yuri Andruhovych's novel Perverzion (Northwestern University Press, 2005) which was originally published in 1997, explains in his introduction to the novel why he has opted for such variant of the title: "I have chosen the English title Perverzion with a z instead of the standard s for particular reasons. First, the novel is not just about sexual perversion, but it is a philosophical novel about different versions of narrative with both satirical and serious implications. The eminent Ukrainian linguist George Shevelov has suggested that the title Perverziia in the original historically should have been spelled with an s; in his mind it comprises a mild perversion of the Ukrainian word. Thus I feel that my slight perversion of the title in English constitutes a realized metaphor and is in the spirit of the author's design."