Manyebook

The Burn

Aksyonov's magnum opus — and quite something: shaggy, surrealist, knowingly comic, painful, and always utterly carbonated. Is there a plot here? Well, yes and no. Aksyonov (The Steel Bird, The Island of Crimea) offers a narrator/hero named Tolya von Steinbock — a quasi-autobiographical figure who is variously metamorphosed into a scientist, a jazz musician, a sculptor, a writer, a doctor. Through this flexible alter ego, then, Aksyonov can bring in everything — starting with memories of his own childhood in the Siberian prison-camp town of Magadan.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 528
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780394741741
  • Genres
  • russia, fiction
  • Release date
  • 1985