{"product_id":"rapture-a-novel-by-iliazd","title":"Rapture: A Novel by Iliazd","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe draft dodger Laurence yearns to take control of his destiny. Having fled to the highlands, he asserts his independence by committing a string of robberies and murders. Then he happens upon Ivlita, a beautiful young woman trapped in an intricately carved mahogany house.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLaurence does not hesitate to take her as well. Determined to drape his young bride in jewels, he plots ever more daring heists. Yet when Laurence finds himself casting bombs alongside members of a revolutionary cell, he must again ask: is he a free man or a pawn of history? \u003cem\u003eRapture\u003c\/em\u003e is a fast-paced adventure-romance and a literary treat of the highest order.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWith a deceptively light hand, Iliazd (the nom de plume of Ilia Zdanevich, a Georgian-Polish and French avant-garde writer and artist) entertains questions that James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Thomas Mann once faced. How does the individual balance freedom and necessity, love and death, creativity and sterility? What is the role of violence in human history and culture? How does language both comfort and fail us in our postwar, post-Christian world? Censored for decades in the Soviet Union, \u003cem\u003eRapture\u003c\/em\u003e was nearly lost to Russian and Western audiences. This translation rescues Laurence's surreal journey from the oblivion he, too, faces as he tries to outrun fate.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pushkin House Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57266948833658,"sku":null,"price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/3406\/3009\/files\/9780231180832.jpg?v=1789397996","url":"https:\/\/shop.pushkinhouse.org\/products\/rapture-a-novel-by-iliazd","provider":"Pushkin House Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}