{"title":"Vladimir Sorokin","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVladimir Sorokin\u003c\/strong\u003e crafts compelling narratives that blend sharp social commentary with imaginative storytelling. His works often explore themes of power, identity, and the surreal facets of modern life, inviting readers into a world where the ordinary and the extraordinary intersect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the satirical undertones of \u003cem\u003eDispatches from the District Committee\u003c\/em\u003e to the haunting landscapes of \u003cem\u003eThe Sugar Kremlin\u003c\/em\u003e, Sorokin’s fiction challenges conventional boundaries and offers a bold, provocative reading experience within contemporary General Fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"their-four-hearts-by-vladimir-sorokin-9781628973969","title":"Their Four Hearts","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn many respects, \u003ci\u003eTheir Four Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e is a book of endings and final things. Vladimir Sorokin wrote it in the year the Soviet Union collapsed and then didn't write fiction for ten years after completing it—his next book being the infamous \u003ci\u003eBlue Lard\u003c\/i\u003e, which he wrote in 1998. Without exaggerating too much, one might call it the last book of the Russian twentieth century and \u003ci\u003eBlue Lard\u003c\/i\u003e the first book of the Russian twenty-first century. It is a novel about the failure of the Soviet Union, about its metaphysical designs, and about the violence it produced, but presented as God might see it or Bataille might write it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTheir Four Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e follows the violent and nonsensical missions carried out by a group of four characters who represent Socialist Realist archetypes: Seryozha, a naive and optimistic young boy; Olga, a dedicated female athlete; Shtaube, a wise old man; and Rebrov, a factory worker and a Stakhanovite embodying Soviet manhood. However, the degradation inflicted upon them is hardly a Socialist Realist trope. Are the acts of violence they carry out a more realistic vision of what the Soviet Union forced its \"heroes\" to live out? A corporealization and desacralization of self-sacrificing acts of Soviet heroism? How the Soviet Union truly looked if you were to strip away the ideological infrastructure? As we see in the long monologues Shtaube performs for his companions—some of which are scatological nonsense and some of which are accurate reproductions of Soviet language—Sorokin is interested in burrowing down to the libidinal impulses that fuel a totalitarian system and forcing the reader to take part in them in a way that isn't entirely devoid of aesthetic pleasure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs presented alongside Greg Klassen's brilliant charcoal illustrations, which have been compared to the work of Bruno Schulz by Alexander Genis and the work of Ralph Steadman as filtered through Francis Bacon by several gallerists, this angular work of fiction becomes a scatological storybook-world that the reader is dared to immerse themselves in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46717171433708,"sku":"9781628973969","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27158763482767.jpg?v=1754453138"},{"product_id":"dispatches-from-the-district-committee-by-vladimir-sorokin-9781628975178","title":"Dispatches from the District Committee","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrotesque, deconstructive, and absolutely genius, Vladimir Sorokin's short story collection \u003ci\u003eDispatches from the District Committee\u003c\/i\u003e is a revelatory, offbeat portrait of Soviet life beyond the propaganda and state-sponsored realism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCelebrated and censored for its political satire, literary irreverence, and provocative themes, his work has been recognised across the world for its scathing, darkly humorous commentary on political and cultural oppression in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDispatches from the District Committee\u003c\/i\u003e brings together stories from Sorokin's incendiary 1992 collection \u003ci\u003eThe First Subotnik\/My First Working Saturday\u003c\/i\u003e. Skillfully translated by Max Lawton, these stories remain subversive classics, and increasingly relevant in a post-truth information age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853253234924,"sku":"9781628975178","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/27170853482767.jpg?v=1759193053"},{"product_id":"the-sugar-kremlin-by-vladimir-sorokin-9781628975789","title":"The Sugar Kremlin","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePresenting a wide variety of genres and tones, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Sugar Kremlin\u003c\/em\u003e lays out a frightening vision of speculative mercilessness and carnivalesque political horror.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Sugar Kremlin\u003c\/em\u003e is the follow-up to Vladimir Sorokin's \u003cem\u003eDay of the Oprichnik\u003c\/em\u003e, taking place in the same New Medieval universe over the course of fifteen chapters that all return to the object of the title: replicas of the Moscow Kremlin made of sugar. Thousands of these creations are given away to children during the holidays, then make their way through each stratum of Russian society. We follow the trajectories of these candied gifts from the hands of harried paupers to secret political dissidents, from torture-obsessed civil servants to sex workers in a nearby bordello...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Sorokin shifts from story to story and style to style, he draws the reader through grotesquely Russian scenes, creating an aberrantly metaphysical encyclopedia of the New Medieval 'Russian soul'. The candy's sweetness is deceptive — underneath it, you may detect notes of blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47487660097772,"sku":"9781628975789","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/dc18189c7fd065dece17d0779e152928.jpg?v=1775770994"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/vladimir-sorokin.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}