The Blizzard

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

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

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 post-apocalyptic 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.

"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
"Following the dystopian nightmare of Day of the Oprichnik and the epic, genre-bending Ice Trilogy comes The Blizzard, a more accessible but no less imaginative novel encompassing a familiar Russian vista with splashy avant-garde flourishes." ―Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune