The Blizzard

Long-listed for the 2016 PEN Translation Prize
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice

A dazzling, utterly distinctive saga from the internationally celebrated and controversial novelist Vladimir Sorokin, "the shock jock of Russian letters" (Harper's).

"Vladimir Sorokin [is] Russia's most inventive contemporary author . . . [Gambrell's] translation is as elegant, playful and layered as the original." --Masha Gessen, The New York Times Book Review

Garin, a district doctor, is desperately trying to reach the village of Dolgoye, where a mysterious epidemic is turning people into zombies. He carries with him a vaccine that will prevent the spread of this terrible disease, but is stymied in his travels by an impenetrable blizzard. A trip that should last no more than a few hours turns into a metaphysical journey, an expedition filled with extraordinary encounters, dangerous escapades, torturous imaginings, and amorous adventures.

Trapped in an existential storm, Vladimir Sorokin's characters fight their way across a landscape that owes as much to Chekhov's Russian countryside as it does to the postapocalyptic terrain of science fiction. Hypnotic, fascinating, and richly drawn, The Blizzard is a seminal work from one of the most inventive authors writing today. Sorokin has created yet another boldly original work, which combines an avant-garde sensibility with a taste for the absurd and the grotesque, all while delivering stinging truths about contemporary life and modern-day Russia.