Funny and deep, simple and complex, completely unpredictable and incredibly touching—“The Book of Shadows,” which lay in a folder for more than ten years, was printed for the first time in the magazine “PostScriptum” in 1996, after which the novel was put forward for the Booker Prize.
Keeping away from literary commotion and by no means promoting his books, moving out of Russia to Denmark to work on social and scientific matters, Klyuyev receives round-the-clock ovations—from grateful readers of all ages. Maybe because Klyuyev doesn’t really write—Klyuyev performs. With the characters, with the reader, with himself, and above all—with the Word—so that you can’t help but think about your own speech and about how those particular little phrases appeared in our everyday life.
Each of his books is a combination of fairy tale (which is a lie, but with very subtle and sharp hints), reality, and the otherworldly. Beyond the interesting plots, the very style of narration attracts. And if you want to relate it—to, but never compare it—then the novel is associated with “The Master and Margarita”: for its tangled structure and all-encompassing philosophy.