Living Souls

This novel draws on events and situations from the present day, but sets them in a recognizable near future. It follows the lives of a number of characters - a governor, a soldier, a little girl, a pair of lovers - against the backdrop of a guerrilla conflict in Russian territory between the Northerners' and the Southerners' armies, as the indigenous population looks on indifferently. A complex and ambitious journey through the ills afflicting modern Russia, and at the same time a chillingly prophetic dystopia about imminent ethnic conflicts and the consequent crisis of democracy and liberalism, Bykov's epic is destined to leave a profound mark on the consciousness of Western readers.


Genre: Literary Fiction