Genka Paltsev, Son of Dmitry Paltsev

The book by the wonderful Russian writer Vil Vladimirovich Lipatov “Genka Paltsov, son of Dmitry Paltsov” is part of the cycle “Village Detective” about the local operative Fedor Aniskin. These are gripping yet kind, and at times a bit sad, and somewhere even funny stories.

A subtle lyricism, astonishing depth of the heroes’ characters, and an utterly inimitable colorful style of narration make you read and reread the book again and again. And the image of Fedor Aniskin, recreated on the cinema screen by the brilliant actor Mikhail Zharov in the eponymous film, is remembered and loved by more than one generation of Russian readers.

The policeman Aniskin was considered the thickest man in the village. The butter-factory director Cherkashin weighed one hundred and five kilograms, but the local officer was a head taller—and much heavier—although no one knew exactly how much he weighed, because Aniskin himself said: “Well, try to weigh me!” Despite his stoutness, the local officer walked around the village quickly, especially on cool days; he liked to talk with people and couldn’t stand the director of the butter plant, Cherkashin.

In the village Aniskin worked “for God knows how long,” what rank he held the residents didn’t remember— the local officer changed his uniform once every three years, and even then when he went to the district. That was explained by his enormous bulk, and the officer would say: “If I wear my uniform every day, no salary would be enough for me!” In summer, Aniskin wore wide cotton trousers, a gray shirt open at his snow-gray hairy chest, and slippers size forty-six; in the mud he wore leather boots—kirza—and in winter he climbed into gray felt boots whose soles truly made his legs look like an elephant’s…