Lame Fate | Ugly Swans

By Arkady Strugatsky, Afterword by Boris Strugatsky, Translated by Maya Vinokour

Rediscovered Classics

FICTION

400 Pages, 5.5 x 8.5

Formats: Trade Paper, PDF, EPUB, Mobipocket

Trade Paper, $18.99 (US $18.99) (CA $25.99)

Publication Date: August 2020

ISBN 9781641600712

Rights: US, CA & MX

Chicago Review Press (Aug 2020)

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Overview

These chilling and moving nested novels offer insight into a period of enforced silence

A chilling exploration of Soviet society and the artist's role within it. Never before translated into English, Lame Fate tells of author Felix Sorokin, asked to submit a writing sample to a machine evaluating literary merit. Should he risk sharing his unpublished masterpiece? Sorokin’s work is Ugly Swans, presented here in a new translation. It follows Victor Banev, who returns to his hometown to find it haunted by the supernatural “clammies.” They terrify adults but enthrall teens, including Banev’s daughter.

These intertwining stories delve into political progress, honor, courage, and art's value. As the Soviet era wanes, can individuals maintain integrity against oppression and decay? For readers of science fiction, literary fiction, and Russian history, this collection offers a thought-provoking journey into a world of moral compromise and the search for meaning.

Reviews

“Founded, like the best of their work, on a tantalizingly glimpsed hypothesis rather than reams of science-fiction explanations.” —Kirkus Reviews on the previous English translation of Ugly Swans

Author Biography

Arkady (1925–1991) and Boris (1933–2012) Strugatsky were the most famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, with over 25 novels and novellas to their names, including Roadside Picnic, The Doomed City, Hard to Be a God, and The Inhabited Island. Their books have been widely translated and made into a number of films. Translator Maya Vinokour is assistant professor in the department of Russian and Slavic studies at NYU and an award-winning translator. Her translations have appeared in the New Yorker, Fence, Columbia Journal, and World Literature Today.

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