The Incognito Prince

Anton Ponizovsky, a finalist of the “Big Book” prize, presents his new book “An Incognito Prince,” which poses the “cursed Russian question”: how to preserve a wonderful, magical, unique personality in a world that seems dull.

His first novel “Turning Into a Loudspeaker” was nominated for the “Big Book” prize in 2013. “An Incognito Prince” is a blend of an adventure novella, a realistic domestic drama, a passionate confession, and a detective story.

The events take place in 1908 aboard the battleship “Tsarevich” in Sicily, where romance and intrigue are in the air. At the same time, the modern province is shown too— with a hospital for the mentally ill, where someone sets fires, and a psychiatrist has to find the pyromaniac. But behind the detective plot line lurks the question of the “ultimate truth”: where is it—in a dim, real world or in colorful, golden dreams? And which character is the true prince?