The bestseller released with a movie tie-in cover just in time for the film's premiere! Inside, you'll find inserts featuring stills from the adaptation and behind-the-scenes shots.
A new novel from the author of the bestseller "Laurus," winner of the "Big Book" and "Yasnaya Polyana" awards, and a Russian Booker Prize finalist. Named the most anticipated Russian novel of 2016 by Forbes and Meduza. The cover features an illustration by iconic artist Mikhail Chemiakin, created exclusively for this book.
Eugene Vodolazkin is a novelist and philologist. He is the author of the bestseller "Laurus" and the elegant historical fiction "Solovyov and Larionov." In Russia, he is called the "Russian Umberto Eco," and in America—following the English release of "Laurus"—the "Russian Marquez." For him, however, it is enough to simply be himself. Vodolazkin's works have been translated into many foreign languages.
The protagonist of the new novel "The Aviator" is a man in a state of tabula rasa: waking up one day in a hospital bed, he realizes that he knows absolutely nothing about himself—neither his name, nor who he is, nor where he is. In the hope of reconstructing his life story, he begins to record the memories that come to him, fragmented and chaotic: St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 20th century, a childhood spent in summer dachas in Siverskaya and Alushta, gymnasium and first love, the revolution of 1917, a passion for aviation, the Solovki camps… But how does he remember the details of daily life, the phrases, the smells, and the sounds of that era so precisely if the calendar says it is 1999?..
Quote:
"- What is it that you keep writing?
- I am describing objects, sensations. People. I write every day now, hoping to save them from oblivion.
- God's world is too vast to count on success here.
- You know, if everyone described their own, albeit small, piece of this world... Though, why small, exactly? There will always be someone whose view is wide enough.
- For example?
- For example, an aviator."
Reviews:
"Eugene Vodolazkin accompanied his bestseller 'Laurus' with the clarification 'non-historical novel.' His new book, 'The Aviator,' which possesses the hallmarks of genre literature, could similarly be called 'non-fantastic,' even though the story told within it seems far from reality. Incredible events lead to the protagonist, Innokenty Platonov, being shut out of real life for decades. Waking up in a hospital bed, he discovers he remembers little about himself and, in an attempt to recover his story, begins writing down his memories and visions daily. They reflect details of daily life, phrases, and sensations—all things that, at first glance, have no bearing on big history. Gradually, other 'chroniclers' with their own temperaments and styles enter the narrative, creating intense drama and harboring surprises for the reader."
Elena Shubina
