The Invasion

 

Julia Yakovleva's new book combines a great Russian novel and a fantastical thriller. The action of the novel begins in Smolensk in the summer of 1812.
According to the author: «The world of «The Invasion» is not the idyllic and spiritual... world of «War and Peace». My world of 1812 is a world of still hidden, but terrible social tension in society. Some are constrained by serfdom, others by the norms of accepted decency. War will unleash this tension and show who is who in reality. The main character is a retired young landowner with a Pushkin surname, Burmin. He is a veteran of the first Russian war with Napoleon and the catastrophe at Austerlitz, from where he returned not quite the same as he was. He has spent six years keeping away from people and hiding his misfortune, but now he will have to come out - and serve high purposes».