History rolls over living people like a steamroller. Like a huge, terrible wheel, leaving someone intact but tearing someone else in half. Is the person “before” the break and the person “after” the break the same person—or does an unpredictable centaur get born, capable of heroism and treachery at the same time?
In Dmitry Bykov’s new novel “X,” an astonishing story is told about a great Soviet writer who lost half of his own self on the road to glory. Bykov lays bare truly Dante-like circles of hell hidden in one soul—and even finds a magical formula for immortality…