Chevengur

'The most exciting Russian writer to be rediscovered since the end of the Soviet Union'

Independent

'The most exciting Russian writer to be rediscovered since the end of the Soviet Union'

Independent

'The most exciting Russian writer to be rediscovered since the end of the Soviet Union'

Independent

'In Platonov's prose, it is impossible to find a single inelegant sentence'

The Times

'In Platonov's prose, it is impossible to find a single inelegant sentence'

The Times

'In Platonov's prose, it is impossible to find a single inelegant sentence'

The Times

I squint back on our century and I see six writers I think it will be remembered for. They are Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, William Faulkner, Andrey Platonov and Samuel Beckett.... They are summits in the literary landscape of our century ... What's more, they don't lose an inch of their status when compared to the giants of fiction from the previous century.

Joseph Brodsky

I squint back on our century and I see six writers I think it will be remembered for. They are Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, William Faulkner, Andrey Platonov and Samuel Beckett.... They are summits in the literary landscape of our century ... What's more, they don't lose an inch of their status when compared to the giants of fiction from the previous century.

Joseph Brodsky

I squint back on our century and I see six writers I think it will be remembered for. They are Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, William Faulkner, Andrey Platonov and Samuel Beckett.... They are summits in the literary landscape of our century ... What's more, they don't lose an inch of their status when compared to the giants of fiction from the previous century.

Joseph Brodsky

1929: Bolshevism on the brink of Stalinism. In this pivotal year, Andrey Platonov-poet, engineer, true believer wrestling with demons of unbelief-completed his massive lyrical novel Chevengur, where the suffering and violence of a Communist utopia are conveyed not through anger but through sadness, slow-motion pain, and linguistic bewilderment. The reincarnation of this masterwork in English, impeccably midwifed by the Chandlers and placed in context by Platonov's disciple Vladimir Sharov, restores a harrowing vision from inside the beast.

Caryl Emerson (Princeton University)

1929: Bolshevism on the brink of Stalinism. In this pivotal year, Andrey Platonov-poet, engineer, true believer wrestling with demons of unbelief-completed his massive lyrical novel Chevengur, where the suffering and violence of a Communist utopia are conveyed not through anger but through sadness, slow-motion pain, and linguistic bewilderment. The reincarnation of this masterwork in English, impeccably midwifed by the Chandlers and placed in context by Platonov's disciple Vladimir Sharov, restores a harrowing vision from inside the beast.

Caryl Emerson (Princeton University)

1929: Bolshevism on the brink of Stalinism. In this pivotal year, Andrey Platonov-poet, engineer, true believer wrestling with demons of unbelief-completed his massive lyrical novel Chevengur, where the suffering and violence of a Communist utopia are conveyed not through anger but through sadness, slow-motion pain, and linguistic bewilderment. The reincarnation of this masterwork in English, impeccably midwifed by the Chandlers and placed in context by Platonov's disciple Vladimir Sharov, restores a harrowing vision from inside the beast.

Caryl Emerson (Princeton University)

The greatest Russian modernist most people have probably never heard of… [The ‘best and longest’ of Platonov’s ‘great early novels’], Chevengur – now available in a handsome translation... wasn’t published in his lifetime… Like many of Platonov’s remarkable fictions (now, thanks to Robert Chandler and his translating collective, very available), Chevengur offers contemporary readers a wholly imagined, often surprising and by turns terrifying and delightful world.

Spectator

The greatest Russian modernist most people have probably never heard of… [The ‘best and longest’ of Platonov’s ‘great early novels’], Chevengur – now available in a handsome translation... wasn’t published in his lifetime… Like many of Platonov’s remarkable fictions (now, thanks to Robert Chandler and his translating collective, very available), Chevengur offers contemporary readers a wholly imagined, often surprising and by turns terrifying and delightful world.

Spectator

The greatest Russian modernist most people have probably never heard of… [The ‘best and longest’ of Platonov’s ‘great early novels’], Chevengur – now available in a handsome translation... wasn’t published in his lifetime… Like many of Platonov’s remarkable fictions (now, thanks to Robert Chandler and his translating collective, very available), Chevengur offers contemporary readers a wholly imagined, often surprising and by turns terrifying and delightful world.

Spectator