New Future

The future becomes outdated faster than it’s even invented: everything that seemed promising, exciting, and close only a year (two years, two decades) ago has either been pushed back indefinitely or simply moved far to the periphery. As a result, the “factory for producing the future,” which science fiction has always been considered, is breaking down or idling. The authors of the collection “New Future” take on the heroic task of restarting the gears of this factory and offering the reader an image of the future that can be seen from today’s day. And, as usual, this image tells us about the present—perhaps even more than about what lies ahead.

Galina Yuzefovich, literary critic.

In the age of anti-utopias, it’s important not to forget that time hasn’t folded into a circle and hasn’t stopped flowing. The future exists—even if it’s not entirely idyllic. It’s reassuring that the authors of this collection—from Shamil Ydyatullin and Eduard Verkin to Aleksey Salnikov and Vladimir Berezin—don’t lose their sense of historical perspective. While I’m alive, I hope.

Vasiliy Vladimirskiy, book reviewer.

13 unusual stories by contemporary Russian writers. In the future they offer, you can get lost and find yourself again—and you can also try to see stories that are “more shameless than literature.”

Ekaterina Pisareva, cultural reviewer, chief editor of the LitRes Group of Companies.