"A tour de force—exquisite and gripping, finely translated, fiction that pulls you into the beautiful and brutal service of imagining and understanding the human realities of modern Russia, a series of tales meticulously crafted and deeply imagined."
—Philippe Sands, author of East West Street, The Ratline, and The Last Colony
"One of Russia's most prominent contemporary writers, Lebedev, 41, has been hailed for a series of novels that hold a mirror up to Russia's blighted past. A former geologist, he chips away at the deep strata of his country's 20th century history, the seams of trauma concealed by a state-sanctioned campaign of oblivion."
—The Financial Times
“A luminous and magical writer, Sergei Lebedev excavates the Soviet past and gives voice to its restless ghosts. By exploring Russia’s dark history he sheds light on its terrible present. Lebedev’s stories are urgent and compelling at a time when a Kremlin leader is waging a myth-inspired war in Ukraine.”
—Luke Harding, author of Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival
"Like his masterly novels, Lebedev's short fiction shows how the weight of Russia's past is carried into the present, ever shaping it. But while his writing is as vibrant and steely as ever, here it's got a fantastical edge . . . The discerning will find much brilliance."
—Library Journal (Starred review)
"Memories of the Soviet era emerge through relics, landmarks, and fantastical occurrences in this satisfying collection . . . Lebedev adds vibrant lyrical descriptions to the strange interplay of past and present . . . There's a real payoff to these rich and ambiguous stories."
—Publishers Weekly
"A Present Past: Titan and Other Chronicles is a captivating set of short stories by Sergei Lebedev. He is gifted at dissecting the nature of totalitarianism, its demise, and the role of the past in today's Russia."
—Judy Dempsey, senior fellow, Carnegie Europe
"Each of these tales grabs the reader like an enchantment . . . Lebedev possesses prodigious powers of description that can make even a barn into an otherworldly object of fascination, as well as the knack for a well-placed, creepy detail that sends a chill up the reader's spine."
—Powell's Book Blog
"Fascinating . . . These are all superb stories, linked by looking at both the Soviet and post-Soviet world."
—The Modern Novel
Reviews of OBLIVION:
"Not since Alexander Solzhenitsyn has Russia had a writer as obsessed as Sergei Lebedev with that country's history or the traces it has left on the collective consciousness ... The best of Russia's younger generation of writers."—The New York Review of Books
"A geologist by training, Lebedev’s fiction excavates what lies beneath: the inner lives of earlier generations, buried under layers of official myth and self-deceit … the strange dualism that allows loving fathers to serve tyranny by day and to tuck their children up at night.”—The Guardian
"A Dantean descent ... In a steely translation by Antonina W. Bouis, Oblivion is as cold and stark as a glacial crevasse, but as beautiful as one, too, with a clear poetic sensibility built to stand against the forces of erasure."—The Wall Street Journal
"Astonishing ... ingeniously structured around the progressive uncovering of memories of a difficult personal and national past ... with a visceral, at times almost unbearable, force."—The Times Literary Supplement
"Opening in stately fashion and unfolding ever faster with fierce, intensive elegance, this first novel discloses the weight of Soviet history and its consequences. ... Highly recommended for anyone serious about literature or history."—Library Journal (Starred review)
"Packs a wicked emotional punch through fierce poetic imagery ... Lebedev takes his place beside Solzhenitsyn and other great writers who have refused to abide by silence ... Courageous and devastating."—Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)
