An Incomprehensible Novel
4 hrs. 37 min.
Language
Russian
Author
Ivan Shipnigov
Author
Ivan Shipnigov
Narrator
Makar Zaporozhskiy
Narrator
Ilya Slanevsky
Narrator
Alexander Gavrilin
Narrator
Anastasia Shumilkina
Description
Smart, biting, disarmingly piercing prose in which the hero’s voice becomes the voice of a whole generation. Many will recognize this image: a millennial who survived the nineties, grew up in the 2000s, and dove headfirst into the turbulent 2010s.
In “The Unclear Novel,” there are two plot lines: in one, the hero—an author’s namesake—searches for treasure with his friend Lena in a night forest near the Moscow region; in the other, he gives interviews to a fictional YouTube blogger. Wandering in the dark, without landmarks or a map, turns into a strange, psychedelic journey that breaks the laws of time and space and finally ends in the Ural taiga. A conversation over drinks with the host of a YouTube channel gradually takes on a nostalgic tone—Ivan and his interlocutor share intriguing stories, and slice-of-life fleeting feelings about long student binge drinking, Nutella, generational trauma, macaroni and love. And if in the previous successful novel “Stream,” Ivan Shipnig masterfully conveyed the style of messaging in messengers, then in “The Unclear Novel” the reader is immersed in modern conversational literary language—the kind we hear in YouTube interviews with popular presenters. But that, of course, has to be told separately.
Illogical and sometimes downright crazy plots first throw you off, but then they pull you in, gradually revealing their secrets, charming with sincerity and close insights about feelings, values, and desires.
In “The Unclear Novel,” there are two plot lines: in one, the hero—an author’s namesake—searches for treasure with his friend Lena in a night forest near the Moscow region; in the other, he gives interviews to a fictional YouTube blogger. Wandering in the dark, without landmarks or a map, turns into a strange, psychedelic journey that breaks the laws of time and space and finally ends in the Ural taiga. A conversation over drinks with the host of a YouTube channel gradually takes on a nostalgic tone—Ivan and his interlocutor share intriguing stories, and slice-of-life fleeting feelings about long student binge drinking, Nutella, generational trauma, macaroni and love. And if in the previous successful novel “Stream,” Ivan Shipnig masterfully conveyed the style of messaging in messengers, then in “The Unclear Novel” the reader is immersed in modern conversational literary language—the kind we hear in YouTube interviews with popular presenters. But that, of course, has to be told separately.
Illogical and sometimes downright crazy plots first throw you off, but then they pull you in, gradually revealing their secrets, charming with sincerity and close insights about feelings, values, and desires.
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