The Last Case of Major Chistov

Vodolazkin's books are always about "searching for a genre". The conventions of the genre are observed, but the text artistically resists—non-historical novel "Lavr", non-science fiction "Aviator"…

The plot of Vodolazkin's new novel is structured like a detective story and unfolds in modern St. Petersburg. A scientist researching artificial intelligence is murdered. Major Chistov investigates the murder, assisted by a lieutenant whose weakness is literature. The major is a kind of philosopher who, during the investigation, asks questions: "Why do they search for the body of a murdered person, but not for their soul? What is the difference between the animate and the inanimate, that is, the living and the dead, and can we overcome this boundary?" Faithful to his duty, the major sees the investigation through to the end, while the lieutenant narrates this story to the reader in the most literary way.