The award-winning novel “Big Book” is a classic work containing many plot lines that merge into a single theme: the search for justice.
The author is Aleksey Varlamov, who is also known for his novels “My Soul, Pavel” and “The Wolf of Thought,” as well as biographies of Russian writers of the 20th century. He is also a laureate of the “Anti-Booker,” “Big Book,” “Student Booker” awards and the literary prize named after Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
The main character of Varlamov’s new novel, “Odsun,” arrives in the Czech Republic in the late 2010s to give lectures on literature. However, he ends up in an old house in the Sudetes, belonging to a family of Sudeten Germans. The mystery of this house and the tragic fate of its former inhabitants after the Second World War make the hero think deeply, blending his personal drama with important historical events.
“I’m sitting long past midnight in an empty bar ‘Green Toad.’ Around me, skins of killed animals are laid out, antique cupboards, kegs of beer, mugs, and televisions turned off. But despite this, I feel that I’m not alone in a world where times and spaces have mixed. Shadows surround me; I hear distant laughter, voices, and unfamiliar speech, but we can’t meet.”