The Dark Past of the Future Man

Evgeny Chizhov — a prose writer, two-time finalist of the Big Book award, laureate of the Union of Writers of Moscow's Wreath award, translator with a line-by-line approach, finalist of the Andrei Bely Prize and the NOS Prize, and laureate of Yasnaya Polyana's Collector of Paradise. In the novel The Dark Past of the Future Man, combining the lightness of a gripping narrative with techniques of modernist literature, the author describes the relationship of an ordinary person with the Grand Style and Big History, particularly with the turbulent events of October 1993 in Moscow. The central character of the novel works as a stage operator in an opera theater. A new phantom of the opera, he infuses everything around him with his phantom-like quality, stripping things of weight and life of authenticity. Even now, when there is something to compare with, “The Dark Past…” is the best novel about the early nineties. Chizhov paints the late autumn of the empire, transmitting a strange bitter orange aftertaste of the Soviet era. The catastrophe of the early nineties is for him a joyful, carnival-like time: dangerous, of course, but perhaps it will pass somehow. Lev Danilkin The author’s persistence in pursuing the main character, who constantly disappears from view, is fully shared by the reader. In a word, it is a smart piece. Anatoly Naiman