The Last Case of Major Chistov

Evgeny Vodolazkin’s first foray into detective fiction. “The Last Case of Major Chistov” preserves the tone of his philosophical prose.

In the book, two models of time collide: at times, the action is mapped out almost minute by minute—just as in a classic investigation; at other times, timekeeping stops working, and the narrative moves into a space where a conversation is possible between the souls of the living and the departed.

The design features a work by Mikhail Shemyakin, “Leningrad Somnambulist… 1931” (2008).

Evgeny Vodolazkin is the author of six novels, including “Lavra,” “The Aviator,” and “Chagin.” He has been awarded the “Big Book” and “Yasnaya Polyana” prizes, as well as recognized with several international awards.

Vodolazkin’s prose is an unchanging “search for a genre”: external rules are observed, yet the text subtly contradicts them—“Lavra” as a novel beyond historical boundaries, “The Aviator” as science fiction that does not pretend to be scientific...

The new novel is structured as a detective story and unfolds in today’s St. Petersburg. A scientist who was researching artificial intelligence dies. The case is handled by Major Chistov, and assisted by a lieutenant whose main weakness is literature. Major Chistov is a thinking investigator: as the investigation progresses, he reflects on why people search for a body but not for a soul, where the boundary lies between the living and the inanimate, and whether it can be crossed. True to his duty, Chistov brings the investigation to its conclusion, while the lieutenant—his own way, in a literary fashion—brings this story to the reader.