The Petrovs in and Around the Flu

The novel “The Petrovs in Influenza and Around It” is a finalist of the “The Big Book” and NOS awards.

“Salnikov writes the way—perhaps no one else does today—that is: fresh, like the very first day of creation. At every step he knocks the ground out from under the reader’s feet, loosening the vestibular apparatus trained by years of reading ‘normal’ books.

All the random signs the flu-stricken Petrovs encounter in their sickly half-delirium come together into a coherent structure with not a single unnecessary detail. From every crack begins to seep such cheerful chtonic horror and infernal dread that Mamaleyev and Gorchyev start dancing, while Gogol and Bulgakov applaud.

A remarkable, one-of-a-kind language grounded in a solid, tangible material world—and truly magical, shimmering, ambiguousness (whether everything happening in the novel is just flu-induced hallucinations of the three Petrovs, or whether the magical underside of the world has been briefly revealed). No matter how you look at it, this is an outstanding text and a true readers’ celebration.”

Galina Yuzefovich