Heritage

Vladimir Sorokin's novels have always amazed with their predictive accuracy. And if Sorokin's prediction from "Heritage" comes true, no one will envy Russia. Before you is the first major novel banned in the 21st century by the Russian authorities.

The future has come and gone, nuclear war is almost forgotten, not everyone survived, and those who did will never be the same again. The peace treaty did not lead to peace: violence has become the norm and a necessity, tolerance for it is more contagious than the Bolivian virus. In the concluding part of the trilogy about Doctor Garin, Vladimir Sorokin depicts the next stage of post-apocalyptic decay, even further removed from us. However, its reality paradoxically seems much more recognizable. The main character is not immediately recognizable, but he remains, as befits a doctor, an example of dignity and humanity.

A train, an unchanging image connecting Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet literature, travels from east to west. Its fuel is people, not in a metaphorical sense, but literally, and they have nowhere else to run. But the wonderful doctor and his unusual heirs give hope that the mad world has not only an end but a happier continuation.