Man Changes His Skin. Part 2

The Ardсis audio studio presents the popular novel by the Polish and Soviet writer Bruno Jasieński “A Man Changes His Skin.” At different times, the novel was described differently. The synopsis from the 1935 edition is brief: “Bruno Jasieński’s novel reveals a picture of one of the grand social construction projects in the former Eastern Bukhara, now Tajikistan.” A much later edition adds: “…is devoted to …class struggle intensified by religious fanaticism, battles with the Basmachi, the building of a dam, and the creation of a flourishing Vakhsh valley—where once there was scorched, cracked, barren land.” “Wikipedia” is succinct: “it is a story about an American engineer being remade through his participation in socialist construction.” Everything listed is in the book, and yet it’s also an exciting spy-adventure novel, with some pages read like an action film; the book keeps you on edge and doesn’t let you go. No wonder it was adapted twice, and in the second case a five-part version was filmed. We invite you to listen to part of the novel read from the text of the 1935 edition—before it was touched by censorship and edited.