The Swim

A revised edition of Vladimir Sorokin’s collection of early stories has been released—the famous writer and a vivid representative of Russian postmodernism. This volume brings together his stories written in the late 1970s and early 1980s, reflecting the development of Sorokin’s distinctive perspective. In these texts, one can see reflections of Soviet reality, people’s lives, habits, and doublethink, as well as the author’s provocation that brings frozen Soviet everyday life to life. The book includes a variety of texts, from reflective to concise, as well as studies of human nature across the vastness of a totalitarian state. The collection was originally published in 2008, but today its themes are once again relevant—especially the gap between word and meaning, which never fails to spark admiration and discussion.