Lame Fate Ugly Swans - (Rediscovered Classics) by Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Never before translated into English, LAME FATE tells the story of middle-aged author Felix Sorokin, who is asked by the Soviet Writers' Union to submit a writing sample to a new computer program that will scientifically evaluate its "objective value" as a literary work. Sorokin must choose whether to present something establishment-approved or risk sharing his unpublished masterpiece. Sorokin's masterwork is UGLY SWANS, previously published in English as a standalone work but presented here in an authoritative new translation. In it, disgraced literary celebrity Victor Banev returns to the town of his childhood to find it haunted by the mysterious "clammies," black-masked outcasts with supernatural talents who terrify the town's adult population but enthrall its teenagers, including Banev's own daughter. By turns chilling, uproarious, and moving, these intertwining stories from the most celebrated Russian science fiction writers of the Soviet era are sure to delight readers from all walks of life"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>Never before translated into English, <em>Lame Fate </em>is the first-person account of middle-aged author Felix Sorokin. When the Soviet Writers' Union asks him to submit a writing sample to a newfangled machine that can supposedly evaluate the "objective value" of any literary work, he faces a dilemma. Should he present something establishment-approved but middling, or risk sharing his unpublished masterpiece, which has languished in his desk drawer for years? Sorokin's masterwork is <em>Ugly Swans</em>, previously published in English as a standalone work but presented here in an authoritative new translation. <em>Ugly Swans </em>chronicles the travails of disgraced literary celebrity Victor Banev, who returns to his provincial hometown to find it haunted by the mysterious <em>clammies--</em>black-masked men residing in a former leper colony. Possessing supernatural talents, including the ability to control the weather, the clammies terrify the town's adult population but enthrall its teenagers, including Banev's daughter Irma. Together, <em>Lame Fate </em>and <em>Ugly Swans </em>illuminate some of the Strugatskys' favorite themes--the (im)possibility of political progress, the role of the individual in society, the nature of honor and courage, and the enduring value of art--in consummately entertaining fashion.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Founded, like the best of their work, on a tantalizingly glimpsed hypothesis rather than reams of science-fiction explanations." <b>--<i>Kirkus Reviews</i> on the previous English translation of <i>Ugly Swans </i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Arkady and Boris Strugatsky</b> were famous and popular Russian writers of science fiction, with more than twenty-five novels and novellas to their names, including <i>The Inhabited Island</i>, <i>The Doomed City</i>, <i>Hard to Be a God</i>, <i>Monday Starts on Saturday</i>, <b>The Snail on the Slope</b>, and <i>Roadside Picnic</i>. Their books have been widely translated and made into a number of films. <p/><b>Maya Vinokour</b> is an award-winning translator and assistant professor in the department of Russian and Slavic studies at NYU. Her translations have appeared in the<i> New Yorker</i>, <i>Fence</i>, <i>Columbia Journal</i>, and <i>World Literature Today</i>.
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