- Russia witnessed the collapse of the Soviet empire and in the Caucasus, on the Caspian Sea, corruption is even more rampant than elsewhere in the former empire. A man in Kiev sets out in search of a manuscript by a Ukrainian author. Ukraine, too, has separated from the fallen empire.
It is this quest for the author, his past, and his writings that the author describes to us through his hero. It all began with the discovery of an annotated copy whose author lies in a grave. Our hero sets off in search of this man, thus finding himself confronted by secret services, Ukrainians, and traversing hostile territories, all in the quest for a manuscript. The Russian soul is powerful and the land there is sacred. Bringing back the land is the goal of his epic journey.
Andrei Kurkov allows us to discover Russia after the fall of the USSR, where corruption, symbolized by the chameleon, prevails, this small animal blending with the environment where it is exposed. Thus, one must know how to adapt to circumstances, not to succeed, but primarily to survive. A very beautiful testimony of this period where Russia had to overcome the upheaval of an empire’s collapse.
The author, born in Saint Petersburg in 1961, experienced the Soviet regime, his hometown was then called Leningrad, he now lives in Kiev and is internationally recognized.
Thierry Jan, writer
