Reading as part of the 1st international literature festival graal-müritz
The stubborn characters are captivating: there is Maŭčun, who wants to flee to the West with his goose until a spy falls from the sky. A dead body in Berlin's rose garden puts investigator Skima on a trail that leads him through European bookshops to a closed-off superstate. And Oleg Olegovich from Minsk, who renounces all languages and creates his own: Balbuta - his mysterious lover. The jury writes, among other things: "The wild mixture of political thriller, epic, adventure story, satire and fairy tale links points of reference ranging from James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, Selma Lagerlöf and Joseph Brodsky to Alexander Pushkin, Vladimir Nabokov and Paul Celan.''
"A breathtaking spectacle. Fairytale imagery mingles with absurdist humor in this prophetic political thriller in which Russia and Belarus have become a dictatorial superstate." The Guardian
