The Year of the Comet
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A coming of age novel set in a crumbling Soviet Union by the acclaimed author of Oblivion—“the best of Russia’s younger generation of writers”(The New York Review of Books).
As the Soviet Union edges toward collapse, a young boy’s idyllic childhood takes a sinister turn. Rumors of a serial killer haunt the neighborhood, families pack up and leave town without a word of warning, and the country begins to unravel. Policemen stand by as protesters overtake the streets, knowing that the once awe-inspiring symbols of power they wear on their helmets have become devoid of meaning.
In The Year of the Comet, the acclaimed Russian poet and novelist Sergei Lebedev depicts a vast empire coming apart at the seams, transforming a very public moment into something delicate and personal. With stunning beauty and shattering insight, Lebedev writes about the tenderness of childhood, the legacy of Stalinism, and the growing consciousness of a boy in the world.
“A clear poetic sensibility built to stand against the forces of erasure.” —The Wall Street Journal
“This gorgeously written, unsettling novel . . . leaves us with a fresh understanding of that towering moment in recent history” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lebedev (Oblivion) delivers a remarkable bildungsroman, set against the decline of the Soviet Union. The nameless narrator, a young boy yearning for anonymity and seclusion, reflects on his past and relatives in an attempt to find truth and a better understanding of himself. In doing so, he also tells the story of Soviet rule. When he discovers Grandmother Mara's old edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, he notices the book includes names and places he has never heard mentioned. These vanished entries spur the protagonist to acknowledge his homeland's fractured identity and to become more aware of the narratives that dictate his life. The appearance of Mister, a serial killer targeting young children, disrupts the rhythms of obeying power and pushes the narrator to pay attention to hints of the nation's inevitable collapse. Like Lebedev's previous novel, this book centers on one's attempt to recover the past from a powerful governing narrative. Antonia W. Bouis's deft translation captures Lebedev's striking prose. The novel is packed with symbolism: "Every object means something, says something, increases the danger that threatens the hero or mitigates it," the narrator muses. The plot remains widely relatable in depicting conflicts of consciousness the speaker's attempts to reconcile the contradictions between ideology and individuality. This is a smart, convincing, and affecting novel.
