Shells. Cubes

Mikhail Elizarov — prose writer, musician, author of the novels “Earth” (winner of the “National Bestseller” award), “Librarian” (winner of the “Russian Booker” award), “Pasternak” and “Cartoons”, collections “Nails” (shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize), “We Went Out to Smoke... for 17 Years” (reader's choice award of the “NOS” Prize), “Burattini”. “Shells. After all, these are not stories, but rather literary «things», deliberately highlighting the traces of their «made-ness». Simply put, these are four different mechanisms of text assembly: from the most traditional, claiming autobiographicality, to “experimental” — of course, in the author's understanding. A hundred years ago, formalists studied the so-called technique as a self-sufficient essence of the text. Before the reader are four different techniques, four forms. Four entities. Four shells. Cubes — these are gray panels where they live according to magical concepts and police protocols. Cubes — not a Habitat, but Language and Thinking. Cubes — these are cruel and tender dreams, recorded in a checked notebook”. MIKHAIL ELIZAROV