The Road to Astapovo

A new travel novel by a prose writer, literary scholar, and journalist.

Vladimir Berezin is the author of both fantastic prose, a biography of Viktor Shklovsky in “ZhZL,” and a book about the history of the Soviet automobile industry.

The Writer, Architect, Local Historian, and Museum Director—whose prototypes are easy to recognize—set off on a journey like the heroes of “Three Men in a Boat, Not Including the Dog.” Only they choose a landmark route—the last journey of Leo Tolstoy from Yasnaya Polyana to Astapovo. By repeating it, the heroes reflect on Russian culture and history, marvel at abandoned palaces and temples, and alternately have fun and feel sad.

“Poetry arose from nothing: from old texts, from a speck on a pocket knife, from car exhaust on a country road, from ruined churches in the middle of Russia, and from combinations of rethought words. We all wrote one travel journal.”