{"product_id":"nikolai-nikolaevich-and-camouflage-two-novels-paperback","title":"Nikolai Nikolaevich and Camouflage: Two Novels - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eYuz Aleshkovsky\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eDuffield White\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator), \u003cb\u003eSusanne Fusso\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmong contemporary Russian writers, Yuz Aleshkovsky stands out for his vivid imagination, his mixing of realism and fantasy, and his virtuosic use of the rich tradition of Russian obscene language. These two novels, written in the 1970s, display Aleshkovsky's linguistic gifts and keen observations of Soviet life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eNikolai Nikolaevich\u003c\/i\u003e begins when its titular hero, a pickpocket by trade, is released from prison after World War II and finds a job in a Moscow biological laboratory. Starting out as a kind of janitor, he is soon recruited to provide sperm for strange experiments intended to create life in the Andromeda galaxy. The hero finds himself at the center of the 1948 purge of biological science in the Soviet Union, in a transgressive tale that joins science fiction (and science fact) with gulag slang and a love story. The protagonist and narrator of \u003ci\u003eCamouflage\u003c\/i\u003e is an alcoholic who claims that he and his gang of friends are just one part of a vast camouflaging operation organized by the Party to hide the Soviet Union's underground military-industrial complex from the CIA's spy satellites. As they pass their time on the streets and share their alcohol-inspired fantasies, they see the stark reality of the Cold War in Russia in the late seventies. \u003ci\u003eNikolai Nikolaevich and Camouflage\u003c\/i\u003e introduces English-speaking readers to a master of the comic first-person narrative.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYuz Aleshkovsky was born in 1929 in Krasnoyarsk and grew up in Moscow. He served in the Soviet navy and was imprisoned from 1950 to 1953 for \"violating discipline.\" He published children's books but became best known for his songs and novels circulated in samizdat before he emigrated to the United States in 1979. His works in English include \u003ci\u003eThe Hand \u003c\/i\u003e(1989) and \u003ci\u003eKangaroo\u003c\/i\u003e (1999). \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDuffield White is professor emeritus of Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies at Wesleyan University. He is the translator of \u003ci\u003eTolstoi in the Sixties\u003c\/i\u003e by Boris Eikhenbaum (1982). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSusanne Fusso is Marcus L. Taft Professor of Modern Languages and professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies at Wesleyan University. She is the translator of \u003ci\u003eTrepanation of the Skull\u003c\/i\u003e by Sergey Gandlevsky (2014).\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 232\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.8 x 8.4 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 11, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51765512306976,"sku":"9780231189675","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/fd02240201e95a8ea0c9e1a2719d267f.webp?v=1780272267","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/nikolai-nikolaevich-and-camouflage-two-novels-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}