Man and His Surroundings

Fazil Iskander, Fazil Iskander, Alexander Rojavin

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English

Academic Studies Press
14 September 2023

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Fiction in translation; Russian Revolution

"Man and His Surroundingsirreverently explores Soviet and post-Soviet identity, politics, and history. In what Iskander himself calls the book's seminal novella, the narrator meets a man who believes himself to be Lenin, thawed out after decades of cryogenic storage. The narrator endures a phantasmagorical account of what ""Lenin"" thought and did during the October Revolution of 1917 and how another revolution is imminent. In another novella, the narrator tells of a nationally renowned fencer as the fencer sits at a neighboring table, discussing the impossibility of equality on earth, while his son pesters him for ice cream. The novellas enrapture the reader with their humor and impart a better intuitive understanding of the Soviet cultural heritage and mindset."

By: Fazil Iskander, Fazil Iskander
Translated by: Alexander Rojavin
Imprint: Academic Studies Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9798887191058
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 14 September 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Translator’s Introduction Instead of a Foreword 1. Lenin at the Amra 2. The Rapier 3. The Hunting Hawk 4. The Beauty of Norms, or a Boy Waits for a Man 5. The Light of the Twilight Youth 6. A Sea of Charisma 7. Palermo—New York 8. The Old Men’s Bender on the Sea 9. Lenin and Uncle Sandro

Fazil Iskander(1920 - 2016) was raised inAbkhazia but settled permanently in Moscowafter graduating from the Gorky LiteraryInstitute in Moscow in 1954. Iskander's majorworks include the satirical novelSozvezdiyekozlotura(1966;The Goatibex Constellation)and the allegorical dystopiaKroliki iudavy(1982;Rabbits and Boa Constrictors).Iskander spent decades writing the epicnovelSandro iz Chegema(Sandro of Chegem),which chronicles the collision of Sovietvalues with Abkhazian patriarchal life. Alexander Rojavinis a multilingual intelligence, media, and policy analyst specializing in information warfare. He is currently editing a book on modern Russian cinema as a key battlefield in the Kremlin's information war (forthcoming Routledge). At the same time, literary translation has always been one of his first loves.

Reviews for Man and His Surroundings

This new translation of Fazil Iskander's Man and His Surroundings, a collection of nine novellas set in the writer's native Abkhazia, is a much-needed addition to Iskander's oeuvre available in English. Iskander's prose, beloved by generations of readers, offers a humorous and de-centering look at the absurdities of the Soviet reality, seen through the looking glass of life in Mukhus (Sukhumi). Alexander Rojavin's translation skillfully captures Iskander's lapidary style and austere humor, while his passionate translator's introduction praises the power of humor in the face of tyranny, past and present. This book will be a welcome addition to anyone teaching Soviet and Post-Soviet epochs in post-colonial perspective, and an enjoyable read for many. - Maria Khotimsky, Senior Lecturer in Russian, Global Languages, MIT Fazil Iskander was an obvious candidate for the Nobel Prize. Like two other laureates, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he broadened literary geography by adding his motherland, Abkhazia, to it. A fearless explorer who revealed this land to so many readers, Iskander made the written world larger. In the confines of the invented village of Chegem, he wove wise, meandering prose in an Eastern manner. His humorous writing opens a new and unique world for American readers, and the portal to it is this excellent translation by Alexander Rojavin. The work is accessible both to readers familiar with Iskander's magnum opus, Sandro from Chegem, as well as those who are just now about to discover one of the most inventive and exotic authors categorized under Magical Realism. Welcome to Chegem. - Alexander Genis, Writer, NY