Rymba

An unusual atmospheric novel!

Finalist of the “Yasnaya Polyana” prize.

Aleksandr Bushkovsky was born and lives in Karelia. He is the author of three works of prose. The collection “The Holiday of Extra Eagles” made it into the shortlist for the “Yasnaya Polyana” prize in 2018. In the same year, Bushkovsky became the laureate of the journal “Oktyabr” award for the novel “Rymba.”

The novel opens with a fairy-tale-historical beginning, but the events described take place in the present day. The legends about the history of the village of Rymba—and, more broadly, the history of the Russian North in the context of the history of Russia—serve only as a backdrop for them.

On the island of Rymba, lost in a huge lake, people live in an almost patriarchal little community. But one day, a man who has lost consciousness is carried to the shore near the village. With his arrival, the unhurried flow of life of the Rymba residents is interrupted by an invasion from the outside world…