A strangely discordant yet generally quite compelling political novel from the prize-winning (and remarkably productive) young Russian writer (The Life of Insects; A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia, both 1998, etc.). Read full book review >
A fascinating collection of eight surpassingly strange stories, the second to have won Russia's Booker Prize by the young author of Omon Ra (1996) and The Blue Lantern (1997). Read full book review >
An ingenious and cryptic allegorical fantasy, obviously inspired by Karel apek's classic play The Insect Comedy, in which characters exist simultaneously as human beings and as various insects—by the prize-winning young Russian author of Omon Ra and The Yellow Arrow (both 1996). Pelevin's story consists of a number of linked episodes all set in the immediate environs of a seaside resort hotel where Samuel Sacker, a visiting American businessman, confers with his Russian associates-to-be Arthur and Arnold. Read full book review >
The Blue Lantern ($22.95; Oct. 30; 160 pp.; 0-8112-1370-6): This first of two volumes offers the selected stories of an abrasive and amusing Russian writer whose novels include The Yellow Arrow and Omon Ra (both trans. 1996) and whose short fiction won the 1993 Russian Booker Prize. Read full book review >
A vigorous satire on the Soviet space program is combined with a thoughtful dramatization of the mixed human impulses to explore, conquer, and transcend in this memorable short novel by the author of The Yellow Arrow (see below). Pelvin's narrator and protagonist, born Omon Krivomazov, grows up in a nondescript village, ignored by his drunken father and sustained by a rapturous ``dream of the sky'' that fills his being with the romance of celestial navigation. Read full book review >
An enigmatic novella, whose suggestive central image strikingly encapsulates the character of post-Soviet society and, more generally, the fate of man—from the prize-winning Russian author of Omon Ra (see above). Protagonist Andrei is riding on a train called the Yellow Arrow, whose destination, he learns, is a ruined bridge. Read full book review >
