Featured titles
-
Churov and Churbanov, a novel by Ksenia Buksha
Rights sold: Russia - AST
Shortlisted for the 2020 Big Book Award
Churov and Churbanov is a classic Petersburg tale in the tradition of Dostoevsky and Gogol, and the city’s atmosphere is palpable in every scene. The book is also a family drama; a riff on the Gothic theme of the double; a laugh-out-loud adventure novel; a sly triumph of speculative fiction; an elegy on growing up (and old); and a portrait of two familiar types: the awkward, hard-working nice guy (Churov, a pediatric cardiologist) and the life-of-the-party woman magnet (Churbanov, a two-bit wheeler-dealer). Their dissimilar lives begin to entwine after they discover their hearts beat in unison. This seemingly pointless synchrony has a side effect: a pair like them can sync other people’s heartbeats to their own, thus saving the lives of patients with serious heart conditions. But there’s a downside: when one of the original pair dies, all those whose heartbeats the pair synchronized die, too. Churov and Churbanov must follow their hearts, so to speak, in deciding what role their arbitrary gift will play for those around them. Buksha proves we depend on each other more than we realize, and we can save (or destroy) lives even if our hearts don’t beat as one.
---
Please check Anne O. Fisher's page for a sample translation and media reviews dedicated to Churov and Churbanov in English: https://www.anneofisher.com/ksenia-buksha
Read more... -
Rabbits and Boa Constrictors, a novel by Fazil Iskander (1982, 1987)
Published by: Estonia - Perioodika (1989), Croatia - Svjetlost (1989), Czech Republic - Jonathan Livingston (2017), France - Rivages (1990), Italy - Atmosphere libri (2013), Spain - Círculo de Lectores (1991), USA - Ardis (1989), Overlook Press (2014)
A humorous tale about the deteriorating relations between two groups: the rabbits and boa constrictors, Iskander's novella, like Animal Farm, is also a humorous critique of power.
The L.A. Times says "Iskander takes a worthy place in the tradition of Russian satirists, the Gogol of DEAD SOULS, the Nabokov of LOLITA."
This novel originally appeared in Russian in the West in 1982.
Read more...