Oblivion - Paperback

by Sergei Lebedev (Author), Antonina W. Bouis (Translator)

"Rich in textures, colors, sounds, and visual details ... The best of Russia's younger generation of writers."-The New York Review of Books

In one of the first twenty-first century Russian novels to probe the legacy of the Soviet prison camp system, a young man travels to the vast wastelands of the Far North to uncover the truth about a shadowy neighbor who saved his life, and whom he knows only as Grandfather II. What he finds, among the forgotten mines and decrepit barracks of former gulags, is a world relegated to oblivion, where it is easier to ignore both the victims and the executioners than to come to terms with a terrible past. This disturbing tale evokes the great and ruined beauty of a land where man and machine worked in tandem with nature to destroy millions of lives during the Soviet century. Emerging from today's Russia, where the ills of the past are being forcefully erased from public memory, this masterful novel represents an epic literary attempt to rescue history from the brink of oblivion.

Sergei Lebedev was born in Moscow in 1981 and worked for seven years on geological expeditions in northern Russia and Central Asia. His first novel, Oblivion, has been translated into many languages.

Author Biography

Sergei Lebedev was born in Moscow in 1981 and worked for seven years on geological expeditions in northern Russia and Central Asia. Lebedev is a poet, essayist and journalist. His first novel, Oblivion, has been translated into many languages. Lebedev, one of Russia's most exciting young writers, is currently at work on his third novel.

Antonina W. Bouis is one of the leading translators of Russian literature working today. She has translated over 80 works from authors such as Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Mikhail Bulgakov, Andrei Sakharov, and Sergei Dovlatov. Bouis, previously executive director of the Soros Foundation in the former USSR, now lives in New York City.