In a small, forgotten-by-God town lives a young man nicknamed Khorëk. An incomplete family—his mother is an alcoholic—and the boy raises himself as he can. Growing up, he becomes cruel and vengeful, taking by force what others don’t want or can’t give him. But at some point he discovers a strange and frightening gift: he can talk to God, and God listens to him.
The truth is, Khorëk’s God is not a church God, not the God of rites and rituals, but a natural, simple, all-encompassing God who was with humankind even before the beginning of religions. In his novel, Aleshkovsky raises a painful and very sincere question: can a monster earn divine beauty while still alive? Is it right? Should it be so? And if it should be so, then who is responsible for the pain inflicted by one person on another?
The novel «Khorëk’s Life» was a finalist for the Russian Booker Prize a few years ago; today it has been translated into German and is well known to European readers. The author’s distinctive vision of the world, conveyed through the hero, will help you look differently at the contrast between Good and Evil—and feel drawn to the extraordinary character, if not with love, then at least with understanding, compassion, and sympathy.