{"product_id":"before-and-during-author-by-vladimir-sharov","title":"Before and During Author by Vladimir Sharov","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eRead Russia 2015 Translation Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSet in a psychiatric clinic in Moscow in the long decades of late-Soviet stagnation, \u003cem\u003eBefore and During\u003c\/em\u003e sweeps the reader away from its dismal surroundings on a series of fantastical excursions into the Russian past.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe meet Leo Tolstoy’s twin brother, eaten by the great writer in his mother’s womb, only to be born as Tolstoy’s ‘son’; the philosopher-hermit Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed that the common task of humanity was the physical resurrection of their ancestors; a self-replicating Madame de Staël who, during her second life, is carried through plague-ridden Russia in a glass palanquin and becomes Fyodorov’s lover; and the composer Alexander Scriabin, who preaches to Lenin on the shores of Lake Geneva.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOut of these intoxicating, darkly comic fantasies – all described in a serious, steady voice – Sharov seeks to retrieve the hidden connections and hidden strivings of the Russian past, its wild, lustful quest for justice, salvation and God.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTranslated by \u003cstrong\u003eOliver Ready \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pushkin House Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57266636620154,"sku":null,"price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/3406\/3009\/files\/00000238_g.jpg?v=1789394238","url":"https:\/\/shop.pushkinhouse.org\/products\/before-and-during-author-by-vladimir-sharov","provider":"Pushkin House Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}