The Undead
A Novel of Modern Russia
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jan 13, 2026
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- $9.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In this gripping tale of contemporary Russia, a young filmmaker and her friends run afoul of a government that ruthlessly oppresses artists who dare to satirize the regime ...
When Maya, a young Russian filmmaker, makes a low-budget horror movie with her friends, it seems like a promising start to a career in indie film. Little does she know that her jokey lo-fi film will soon attract the attention of the autocratic censors at the highest levels of the Russian police state.
What follows is a propulsive narrative of an artist being crushed by state power, and the choices that one makes within a system where free expression is literally illegal. Written with the undeniable voice of a emigre from Putin's Russia, The Undead is a tense, piercing story that serves as a parable, and a warning, about political oppression.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The English-language debut by Russian-born author Satchkova, who now lives in the U.S., chillingly examines the Russian government's stranglehold on the arts and media industries. After Maya Kotova leaves a successful career in magazine publishing in her mid-30s to attend Russia's best film school, she achieves near overnight success when her first feature film, a satirical horror movie about a zombie Lenin, is picked up by a production company. Unlike her fellow film school graduates, Maya is avowedly apolitical, willfully turning her back on the mounting atrocities committed by Putin's regime in the mid-2010s. So when she's accused by authorities of incorporating subversive messages into her film, Maya is incredulous. Later, when activist groups laud her case as a free speech cause célèbre, she feels like an imposter: "She wasn't the brave artist they wanted her to be, the one suffering for her sharp, uncompromising vision." Some ostensibly humorous elements—Maya's romantic foibles and professional jealousies—fail to fully land, but her fraught relationships with fellow filmmakers adds to the novel's bleakly ironic conclusion. Throughout, Satchkova sustains an ominous vibe in her depiction of authoritarianism. It's a convincing cautionary tale of the dangers of political apathy.
