Vladimir Sorokin is the author of fifteen novels, including Day of the Oprichnik, The Blizzard, Ice Trilogy, and The Queue, as well as numerous plays, short stories, and screenplays. He wrote the libretto for Leonid Desyatnikov's The Children of Rosenthal, the first opera to be commissioned by the Bolshoi Theater in a quarter century. His books have been translated into thirty languages, and he has won the Andrei Bely and the Maxim Gorky prizes. In 2013, Sorokin was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize.
"Vladimir Sorokin is one of Russia's greatest writers, and this
novel is one of his best. Day of the Oprichnik is a haunting and
terrifying vision of modern Russia projected two decades into the
future--or maybe not the future at all. A joy to read--more
entertaining, dynamic, engaging, and deeply hilarious than a
dystopian novel has any right to be." --Gary Shteyngart, author of
Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story "Anyone who wants to
learn more about Russia and what could be the outcome of [Vladimir]
Putin's rule should read the book. It's dark and dystopian, but
it's a part of our life." --Garry Kasparov, Time "Might this be
something of a Sorokin moment in the Anglophone world? Is the pope
German?" --Stephen Kotkin, The New York Times Book Review "A fierce
political cartoon painted in lashing strokes . . . [Sorokin] takes
no prisoners, in other words--he knows what he's up against, and he
spits it in the eye--and Day of the Oprichnik works as an enduring
caricature of Russian strong-man culture as envisioned by its
latest Strong Man." --Michael Scott Moore, n+1 "Sorokin's book is a
sleek and darting fish . . . Day of the Oprichnik . . . should
attract the readership [Sorokin] deserves . . . He has a fearless
imagination willing to be put to most grotesque and energetic use."
--Alexander Nazaryan, The New Republic "Compelling . . .
Devastating . . . Powerful . . . In Day of the Oprichnik, [Sorokin]
combines futurological invention with political archaism to vicious
satirical effect . . . It's as if hi-tech limbs had been grafted
onto the torso of early modern statecraft: Wolf Hall meets William
Gibson." --Tony Wood, London Review of Books "[A] take-no-prisoners
satire from one of Russia's literary stars . . . Vladimir Sorokin's
lurid, wildly inventive Day of the Oprichnik is a rowdy critique of
Russia's drift toward authoritarianism." --Taylor Antrim, Newsweek
"If queues were arranged in order of merit, it would only be fair
to put . . . Vladimir Sorokin at the head." --Lucy Ellman, The
Guardian
"Sorokin [is] one of Russia's funniest, smartest and most
confounding living writers." --Elaine Blair, The Nation "Day of the
Oprichnik is Vladimir Sorokin's funniest and most accessible book
since The Queue. The KGB orgy scene at the end is worthy of the
great shit-eating scenes of his earlier work." --Keith Gessen,
author of All the Sad Young Literary Men
"Sorokin's novel packs a hefty satirical punch that will show
American audiences why the author has been so controversial in
Russia . . . Great fun, with a wickedly absurdist humor that
occasionally reminds one of William S. Burroughs." --Booklist
"Perhaps no other postmodern writer demonstrates the angst around
the reemergence of Russia's slide back toward authoritarianism than
the celebrated (and often reviled) satirist Sorokin. His latest
assault, not only on Putin's government but literary senses, is a
caustic, slash-and-burn portrait of a man joyfully engaged in the
business of state-initiated terrorism . . . It's disturbing stuff,
but as Sorokin's razor-sharp caricature unfolds . . . the
novelist's keen argument becomes hard to ignore . . . [An] acidly
funny send-up of Russia's current state of affairs." --Kirkus
Reviews "Sorokin's creations are at once fantastically strange and
all too familiar. His pen drips with imaginative fury . . . [Day of
the Oprichnik] holds its own with dystopian classics like
Fahrenheit 451 and honors the traditions of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy,
and other great Russian writers even as its characters burn their
books." --Library Journal
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