Summary:
Anatoly Kurchatkin's novel, set in Russia and Thailand, ranges in time from the Brezhnev years of political stagnation, when Soviet values seemed set to endure for eternity, through Gorbachev's Perestroika and the following tumultuous and disorientating decades. Under the surface, ancient currents are influencing the destinies of mathematician Rad, art gallery owner Jenny, entrepreneur (and spy?) Dron, American investor Chris, redundant Soviet diplomat Yelena and Thai playboy Tony in a rapidly globalizing world of laptop computers, mobile phones, credit cards and international finance.
It is 2004, Vladimir Putin has been in the Kremlin for four years and the tsunami of lawlessness which swept over Russia in the Yeltsin years of 'gangster capitalism' is believed to be over. As the iron curtain rusts away and former Soviet citizens can at last travel abroad freely, the ethics of the New Russia encounter the unfamiliar values of Western capitalism and the Buddhism of Thailand. The fourteenth-century battle in which the Prince of Muscovy, inspired by St Sergius of Radonezh, defeated the Golden Horde of the Mongol Empire foreshadows a modern struggle for the soul of Russia.
Tsunami was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize and the Russo-Italian Moscow-Penne Prize.
About The Author:
Born in 1944 in Sverdlovsk, Anatoly Kurchatkin graduated from the Moscow Literary Institute in 1972. Kurchatkin's eagle eye has chronicled the changes in Russian society since the 1970s. He has won numerous prizes over the years, and his novels have been dramatized by the Moscow Art Theatre and turned into feature films. His other works include: Notes of an Extremist (1990), The Joy of Death (2000), The Happiness of Benjamin L. (2002), The Sun was Shining (2004). One of the most European of contemporary Russian writers, his work has been translated into ten languages.
Critics describe him as 'a student of human behaviour with a firm belief in basic principles of human decency.' A master of dialogue, his writing has the resonance of parable.
Review copies are available upon request.
Title: Tsunami
Author: Anatoly Kurchatkin
Translator: Arch Tait
Publisher: Glagoslav Publications
Language: English
ISBN: 9781911414292
Extent: 352 pages
Format: paperback, hardback, e-book
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