The Last Doctor

The novella “The Last Doctor” reveals Anna Revyakina unexpectedly: before the reader stands not only a poet and the voice of her time, but also a prose writer of a European caliber—one who works with the category of time, the mechanisms of memory, and the border states of the human psyche.

The book fuses psychological prose of the 21st century, the devices of magical realism, and a metaphysical confession—it can be read as an existential drama, a psychoanalytic journey, and a philosophical statement.

“The Last Doctor” is a special text by Revyakina and the first issue of the “Neoroman” series of the KPD (KPD edition), oriented toward “non-format,” experimental prose.

The novella by a Donetsk poetess—one of the symbols of the “Russian Spring”—at first glance seems to run counter to the usual image of the author. This work sits at the crossroads of traditions of the European psychological novel of the new century and magical realism, where the heroine finds herself right on the boundary of existence—both in an existential and in a direct, medical sense.

The text allows for different readings: as a psychoanalytic treatise about an “acute reality,” as feminist writing, as a metaphysical monologue of “a trembling creature” about the right to a “main” life addressed to higher authorities.

At the same time, the depth of the themes and the extremely clear, instantly revealing manner of writing completely removes talk of a “agenda.” Revyakina uses modern literary techniques, a nonlinear composition, and a hidden inner narrative not to showcase possibilities, but to present new, unfamiliar perspectives of contemporary Russian prose.

This is a vivid, candid, and paradoxical novella—and even long-time readers of Revyakina will recognize their beloved author from an unexpected side.