The Snail on the Slope

The Snail on the Slope is the most capacious and extraordinary creation of the maestro Strugatskys. This is a mystery novella in which each reader finds their own meaning: a political satire mixed in, a philosophical saga, an esoteric prophecy, existential—and even psychedelic—content.

This work consists of several, at first glance, unrelated narratives: two civilizations completely unlike one another. The World of the Forest is unusual, mysterious, alluring… and the incorrect world of Administration, where right next to one another are the departments of Forest Study, Forest Protection, and Forest Eradication. And the heroes of the book—Candidate and Peppercorn—each follows their own path, striving for the truth, slowly but inevitably, like a snail crawling up the slope…