It's been 200 years since the nuclear Blast, and what once was the city of Moscow is now the big village of Fyodor-Kuzmichsk (named after its current ruler, Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe...). The effects of radiation are on the borderline between terrifying and outright comical. The economy is sustained on hunting mice, and as far as cultural life goes, the scribes make handwritten copies of a mishmash of books (all supposedly written by Fyodor Kuzmich, of course) ...the dreaded red-robed Sanitars are omnipresent to take you away for the 'Healing' if you're found to be harboring a book from before the Blast.
Our hero is Benedikt and he is living in a post-apocalyptic world where food in general is scarce, and nearly everyone is exhibiting "Consequences" (deformities) as a result of the Blast event. His life takes an abrupt turn when he decides in a moment of starry eyed lust to ask the beautiful Olenka to marry him. Her family is wealthy and part of his new father-in-law's job is to track down old books. It is a life changing moment for Benedikt when he finds that his father-in-law has a room full of books; once Benedikt gets over his superstitions and begins to read, he is absolutely lost to the world of books. He becomes desperate when he realizes that he has... READ THEM ALL. His father-in-law, a few cards short of a full deck, dangles the prospect of liberating the books held by Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe.
(Jeffrey Keeten, GoodReads reviewer)
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Tatyana Tolstaya’s The Slynx reimagines dystopian fantasy as a wild, horripilating amusement park ride....The Slynx is a brilliantly inventive and shimmeringly ambiguous work of art: an account of a degraded world that is full of echoes of the sublime literature of Russia’s past; a grinning portrait of human inhumanity; a tribute to art in both its sovereignty and its helplessness....
The New Yorker
(This radioactive world is) a cunning blend of Russia’s feudal and Soviet eras (presented) with a Russian’s typically mournful optimism....Not for your average reader of futuristic tales, this belongs instead in all literary collections.
Library Journal
All in all, a peculiar, highly original work of fiction.... Jamey Gambrell deserves special praise for her English translation from the Russian in what must have been one of her most challenging projects.
(Glenn Russell, Goodreads reviewer)