The Slynx

"A postmodern literary masterpiece." - The Times Literary SupplementNew in Paperback"A postmodern literary masterpiece." -The Times Literary SupplementTwo hundred years after civilization ended in an event known as the Blast, Benedikt isn't one to complain. He's got a job-transcribing old books and presenting them as the words of the great new leader, Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe-and though he doesn't enjoy the privileged status of a Murza, at least he's not a serf or a half-human four-legged Degenerator harnessed to a troika. He has a house, too, with enough mice to cook up a tasty meal, and he's happily free of mutations- no extra fingers, no gills, no cockscombs sprouting from his eyelids. And he's managed-at least so far-to steer clear of the ever-vigilant Saniturions, who track down anyone who manifests the slightest sign of Freethinking, and the legendary screeching Slynx that waits in the wilderness beyond.Tatyana Tolstaya's The Slynx reimagines dystopian fantasy as a wild, horripilating amusement park ride. Poised between Nabokov's Pale Fire and Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, The Slynx is a brilliantly inventive and shimmeringly ambiguous work of art- an account of a degraded world that is full of echoes of the sublime literature of Russia's past; a grinning portrait of human inhumanity; a tribute to art in both its sovereignty and its helplessness; a vision of the past as the future in which the future is now.

“"The hero of this spellbinding futuristic novel, a government scribe named Benedikt, lives in a primitive settlement on the site of Moscow, two hundred years after "the Blast." No one knows quite how the old world was destroyed; as Benedikt puts it, "People were playing around and played too hard with someone's arms." Citizens born after the Blast exist on a diet of mice and "worrums" and bear frightening mutations, or "Consequences" -- a tail, a single eye, a head covered with fringed red coxcombs. Other inhabitants, called Oldeners, haven't aged at all since the Blast, and harbor memories of a lost culture that go unheeded by their descendants. Tolstaya's radioactive world is a cunning blend of Russia's feudal and Soviet eras, with abuse of serfs, mandatory government service, and regulation of literature. The dangers that threaten, however, feel more contemporary: to the south, Chechens; and to the west a civilization that might hold some promise, except that its members "don't know anything about us." --The New Yorker "Though some may already consider contemporary Russia a kind of dystopia, things could yet be worse, as posited in Tolstaya's intelligent debut novel (after two acclaimed story collections, "Sleepwalker in a Fog "and "On the Golden Porch"). Some kind of nuclear accident has turned all of Russia into a postapocalyptic wasteland, where snow falls constantly and mice are the staple of people's diets. Moscow has been ruled by a series of petty despots, each of whom renames the great city after himself. The latest ruler is Fyodor Kuzmich, who employs vast numbers of scribes to copy hiswritings (actually plagiarized versions of great literary works). One of these scribes is Benedikt, a simple man who has never actually read a book. But Oldeners-people who survived the blast-keep secret libraries, and when one of them introduces Benedikt to his collection, it begins a cycle of learning that gives Benedikt serious political ambitions, enough to start yet another Russian revolution. It takes some time for a plot to develop, but Tolstaya sketches a vivid picture of life in this permanent winter ("Give black rabbit meat a good soaking, bring it to boil seven times, set it in the sun for a week or two, then steam it in the oven-and it won't kill you"). If the author's name looks familiar, it's because it is: Tolstaya is Leo Tolstoy's great-grandniece, so writing about Russian tyranny is something of a family tradition. In this extended fable, she captures the Russian yearning for culture, even in desperate circumstances. Gambrell ably translates the mix of neologisms and plain speech with which Tolstaya describes this devastated world. (Jan. 15) Forecast: Tolstaya is a frequent contributor to the "New York Review of Books" and other journals, and this novel will likely benefit from its simultaneous publication with a collection of her essays ("Pushkin's Children: Writings on Russia and Russians"; Mariner)." Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. --Publishers Weekly "With the publication . . . of THE SLYNX, [Tolstaya] will . . . be granted a place alongside her exalted countrymen Nabokov, Bulgakov, and Gogol . . ." --Bookforum "In a society turned primitive by nuclear holocaust, people hunt mice and tremble at themention of a mysterious forest creature called the slynx; of course, they are utterly ignorant, as books are banned. This scenario may sound familiar, but what's new is the setting. Tolstaya, a noteworthy essayist and short story writer descended from the mighty Tolstoy, places her tale in a futuristic Russia and imbues it with a Russian's typically mournful optimism. At its heart is Benedikt, scribe to the tyrant who rules this sorry land. Timid Benedikt has yet to read a book, but in the course of the novel he discovers the libraries owned by the Oldeners, t”

"a beautiful book ... intelligent and thought-provoking, and the kind of novel any bibliophile would relish reading." Starburst magazine

Born in Leningrad, Tatyana Tolstaya comes from an old Russian family that includes the writers Leo and Alexei Tolstoy. She studied at Leningrad State University and then moved to Moscow, where she continues to live. She is also the author of Pushkin's Children- Writings on Russia and Russians.Jamey Gambrell is a writer on Russian art and culture. Her translations include Marina Tsvetaeva's Earthly Signs- Moscow Diaries 1917-1922 and Vladimir Sorokin'sIce, published by NYRB Classics on December 2006.

"New in Paperback" " A postmodern literary masterpiece." - "The Times Literary Supplement" Two hundred years after civilization ended in an event known as the Blast, Benedikt isn' t one to complain. He' s got a job-- transcribing old books and presenting them as the words of the great new leader, Fyodor Kuzmich, Glorybe-- and though he doesn' t enjoy the privileged status of a Murza, at least he' s not a serf or a half-human four-legged Degenerator harnessed to a troika. He has a house, too, with enough mice to cook up a tasty meal, and he' s happily free of mutations: no extra fingers, no gills, no cockscombs sprouting from his eyelids. And he' s managed-- at least so far-- to steer clear of the ever-vigilant Saniturions, who track down anyone who manifests the slightest sign of Freethinking, and the legendary screeching Slynx that waits in the wilderness beyond. Tatyana Tolstaya' s "The Slynx" reimagines dystopian fantasy as a wild, horripilating amusement park ride. Poised between Nabokov' s "Pale Fire" and Burgess' s "A Clockwork Orange," "The Slynx" is a brilliantly inventive and shimmeringly ambiguous work of art: an account of a degraded world that is full of echoes of the sublime literature of Russia' s past; a grinning portrait of human inhumanity; a tribute to art in both its sovereignty and its helplessness; a vision of the past as the future in which the future is now.

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