{"product_id":"a-werewolf-problem-in-central-russia-and-other-stories-9780811218603","title":"A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia: And Other Stories","description":"Victor Pelevin is \"the only young Russian novelist to have made an impression in the West\" (\u003cem\u003eVillage Voice\u003c\/em\u003e). \u003cem\u003eA Werewolf Problem in Central Russia\u003c\/em\u003e, the second of Pelevin's Russian Booker Prize-winning short story collections, continues his Sputnik-like rise. The writers to whom he is frequently compared--Kafka, Bulgakov, Philip K. Dick, and Joseph Heller--are all deft fabulists, who find fuel for their fires in society's deadening protocol.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"At the very start of the third semester, in one of the lectures on Marxism-Leninism, Nikita Dozakin made a remarkable discovery,\" begins the story \"Sleep.\" Nikita's discovery is that everyone around him, from parents to television talk-show hosts, is actually asleep. In \"Vera Pavlova's Ninth Dream,\" the attendant in a public toilet finds that her researches into solipsism have dire and diabolical consequences. In the title story, a young Muscovite, Sasha, stumbles upon a group of people in the forest who can transform themselves into wolves. As \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e noted, \"Pelevin's allegories are reminiscent of children's fairy tales in their fantastic depictions of worlds within worlds, solitary souls tossed helplessly among them.\" Pelevin--whom \u003cem\u003eSpin\u003c\/em\u003e called \"a master absurdist, a brilliant satirist of things Soviet, but also of things human\"--carries us in \u003cem\u003eA Werewolf Problem in Central Russia\u003c\/em\u003e to a land of great sublimity and black comic brilliance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePelevin, Victor:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eVictor Pelevin\u003c\/strong\u003e is one of Russia's most successful post-Soviet writers. He won the Russian Booker prize in 1993 Born on November 22, 1962 in Moscow, he attended the Moscow Institute of Power Engineering, and the Institute of Literature. He's now been published throughout Europe. His books include \u003ci\u003eA Werewolf Problem in Central Russia, Omon Ra\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Blue Lantern\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Yellow Arrow\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Hall of the Singing Caryatids\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBromfield, Andrew:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Born in Yorkshire, England, \u003cstrong\u003eAndrew Bromfield\u003c\/strong\u003e is a translator of Russian literature and an editor and co-founder of the literary journal Glas.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50413228818706,"sku":"9780811218603","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8555b467-57b1-4693-8dda-ed888690ea97.jpg?v=1729350002","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/a-werewolf-problem-in-central-russia-and-other-stories-9780811218603","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}