Suren's Road

Suren is a taxi driver: a fleeting conversationalist, a man-invisible—once he shuts the car door, people forget about him forever. That door is a portal to a world closed to us, “the world of the little man.” It seems you wouldn’t find such people in our society: little men disappeared long ago, back in the times of dinosaurs and station watchmen. And yet, he exists.

Suren lives out his little life, feels big emotions, experiences grief and love. This book is one day in the life of taxi driver Suren, who makes ends meet at the Mineralnye Vody airport and in the surrounding area. A notch on the fold of a palm, carousels of handshakes, the smell of strong cologne—we stare at it as if under a microscope: the universe of the most ordinary person. People like this we usually don’t notice; they are no one—and at the same time everything, the true source of our knowledge about this life.

With endless tenderness and compassion, we look into this other life—but only the end of the road will make us truly equal.

Sergey Avakyan-Rzhevsky was born in 1986 in Karachay-Cherkessia. He graduated from the journalism faculty at Moscow State University, worked in television and print media, as well as in PR. “Suren’s Road” is his first novel.