{"product_id":"dispatches-from-the-district-committee-9781628975178","title":"Dispatches from the District Committee","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGrotesque, deconstructive, and absolutely genius, Vladimir Sorokin's short story collection \u003ci\u003eDispatches from the District Committee\u003c\/i\u003e is a revelatory, offbeat portrait of Soviet life beyond the propaganda and state-sponsored realism.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eCelebrated--and censored--for its political satire, literary irreverence, and provocative themes, Sorokin's work has been recognized across the world for its scathing, darkly humorous commentary on political and cultural oppression in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDispatches from the District Committee\u003c\/i\u003e brings together stories from Sorokin's incendiary 1992 collection \u003ci\u003eThe First Subotnik\/My First Working Saturday\u003c\/i\u003e and elsewhere. Skillfully translated by Max Lawton, these stories remain subversive classics, and increasingly relevant in a post-truth information age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVladimir Sorokin\u003c\/b\u003e was born in a small town outside of Moscow in 1955. He trained as an engineer at the Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas, but turned to art and writing, becoming a major presence in the Moscow underground of the 1980s. His work was banned in the Soviet Union, and his first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Queue\u003c\/i\u003e, was published by the famed ?migr? dissident Andrei Sinyavsky in France in 1983. In 1992, Sorokin's\u003ci\u003e Collected Stories\u003c\/i\u003e was nominated for the Russian Booker Prize; in 1999, the publication of the controversial novel \u003ci\u003eBlue Lard\u003c\/i\u003e, which included a sex scene between clones of Stalin and Khrushchev, led to public demonstrations against the book and to demands that Sorokin be prosecuted as a pornographer; in 2001, he received the Andrei Biely Award for outstanding contributions to Russian literature. Sorokin is also the author of the screenplays for the movies \u003ci\u003eMoscow, The Kopeck\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003e4\u003c\/i\u003e, and of the libretto for Leonid Desyatnikov's \u003ci\u003eRosenthal's Children\u003c\/i\u003e, the first new opera to be commissioned by the Bolshoi Theater since the 1970s. He has written numerous plays and short stories, and his work has been translated throughout the world. Among his most recent books are \u003ci\u003eSugar Kremlin\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDay of the Oprichnik\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Moscow.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dalkey Archive Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51185909039378,"sku":"9781628975178","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8069fa26-fff4-4121-80a6-82e5a43f2464.jpg?v=1744593205","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/dispatches-from-the-district-committee-9781628975178","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}