Anton

A landmark work of contemporary Russian literature, now in English for the first time

Set in a fictitious town in North Kazakhstan settled by political and ethnic exiles, this panoramic narrative follows the relationship between the titular character Anton, a Moscow historian of the vital "1960s generation," and his grandfather, Leonid, a titan of physical and intellectual rigor who is now on the verge of death. As Anton contemplates the fading away of that once-powerful vitality, he lets his thoughts plunge deep into the past, presented in a series of fine-grained sketches, scattered reminiscences, and subtly interconnected episodes, back and forth from childhood to present day. The resulting novel is a "Soviet family Robinson": the history of rugged and free-thinking intellectuals eking out a tolerable, even enviable homestead existence despite the difficulties of the Stalin years. One of the freest and most vibrant works of literary fiction created since the fall of the Soviet Union, Aleksandr Chudakov's Anton affirms the abiding significance of the simple yet elusive values of family and ancestral tradition, labor and culture, and mercy and responsibility.