Monocline

Former senior lieutenant of state security Viktor Nikolaevich, leaning out of the window, observes the joyful crowd on Leninsky Prospekt, chanting festive slogans in honor of Cosmonautics Day, and five minutes later pays a bloody debt to the past. Divorced and lonely Tamara Semyonovna, having seen the Six-Winged Seraph in her dream, experiences a truly Kafkaesque transformation upon waking. The director of the store, Ekaterina Stanislavovna Sotnikova, is forced to come to terms with her new humiliating role to cover up a scandalous case that tarnishes her name, while meanwhile, the little hamster Timka waits for the prosphora hidden in the receiver-player Rigonda. On a Saturday in June, ten-year-old Dasha sees Red Throat in the pale eye of the horse. The collection of short prose by Vladimir Sorokin, Monocline, includes twelve stories, some of which are extravagant and shocking, others unexpectedly touching and lyrical, but always truly profound and thought-provoking.