Books by Andrey Platonov

TRANSLATED BY ROBERT AND ELIZABETH CHANDLER AND OLGA MEERSONPlatonov's dystopian novel describes the lives of a group of Soviet workers who believe they are laying the foundations for a radiant future.

Moscow in the 1930s is the consummate symbol of the Soviet paradise, a fairy-tale capital where, in Stalin's words, 'life has become better, life has become merrier'. This title exposes the gulf between this premature triumphalism and the harsh reality of low living standards and even lower expectations.

This is ultimately a story about being in possession of your own life. Zoroastrian myth, Sufism, Communism and Freud are woven together to create a work of psychological and philosophical complexity, with the hero, Chagataev, in the role of a 20th-century Moses.