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Synopses & Reviews
A hilarious spoof on the classic country-house murder mystery, from the Russian masters of sci-fi — never before translated
When Inspector Peter Glebsky arrives at the remote ski chalet on vacation, the last thing he intends to do is get involved in any police work. He's there to ski, drink brandy, and loaf around in blissful solitude.
But he hadn't counted on the other vacationers, an eccentric bunch including a famous hypnotist, a physicist with a penchant for gymnastic feats, a sulky teenager of indeterminate gender, and the mysterious Mr. and Mrs. Moses. And as the chalet fills up, strange things start happening — things that seem to indicate the presence of another, unseen guest. Is there a ghost on the premises? A prankster? Something more sinister? And then an avalanche blocks the mountain pass, and they're stuck.
Which is just about when they find the corpse. Meaning that Glebksy's vacation is over and he's embarked on the most unusual investigation he's ever been involved with. In fact, the further he looks into it, the more Glebsky realizes that the victim may not even be human.
In this late novel from the legendary Russian sci-fi duo — here in its first-ever English translation — the Strugatskys gleefully upend the plot of many a Hercule Poirot mystery — and the result is much funnier, and much stranger, than anything Agatha Christie ever wrote.
Review
"If Russian sci-fi can be said to have a soul, it resides with the Brothers Strugatsky....Delightful, and a must-read for a new generation of sci-fi fans everywhere."
NPR
Review
"This is the Strugatskys at their best, at once silly and dead serious... It's a ripping good yarn, which translator Josh Billings has rendered with great energy and wit."
Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
"Does for science-fiction/detective hybridization what Hard to Be a God has done for sci-fi/fantasy."
Flavorwire
About the Author
ARKADY (1925–1991) and BORIS (1933–2012) STRUGATSKY were the most acclaimed and beloved science fiction writers of the Soviet era. The brothers were born and raised in Leningrad, the sons of a critic and a teacher. When the city was besieged by the Germans during World War II, Arkady and their father, Natan, were evacuated to the countryside. Boris remained in Leningrad with their mother throughout the war. Arkady was drafted into the Soviet army and studied at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, graduating in 1949 as an interpreter from English and Japanese. He served as an interpreter in the Far East before returning to Moscow in 1955. Boris studied astronomy at Leningrad State University, and worked as an astronomer and computer engineer. In the mid-1950s, the brothers began to write fiction, and soon published their first jointly written novel,
From Beyond. They would go on to write twenty-five novels together, including
Roadside Picnic, which was the basis for Andrei Tarkovsky's film
Stalker; Snail on the Slope; Hard to Be a God; Monday Begins on Saturday; and
Definitely Maybe, as well as numerous short stories, essays, plays, and film scripts. Their books have been translated into multiple languages and published in twenty-seven countries. After Arkady's death in 1991, Boris continued writing, publishing two books under the name S. Vititsky. Boris died on November 19, 2012, at the age of seventy-nine. The asteroid 3054 Strugatskia, discovered in 1977, is named after the brothers.
JOSH BILLINGS is a writer and translator who lives in Rockland, Maine. His translations of Alexander Pushkin's Tales of Belkin and Alexander Kuprin's The Duel have been published by Melville House. His recent writing has appeared in The Collagist and The Literary Review. He blogs at begborrowstijl.blogspot.com.