Thirst

Kostoya returns from the Chechen War with a face so maimed it looks like a piece of meat. He confines himself to his lonely apartment, with no company save the vodka in his refrigerator. The woman next door checks on him regularly to see that he's still alive, and when she discovers the power his disfigured face has over her misbehaving son, she takes to using Kostoya as a disciplinary influence. One day Kostoya receives a visit from his army pals, who are mobilized to find their missing comrade. Seryoga was their hero during the war ? he rescued them all from their burning tank ? but with the end of the war he lost his sense of purpose. He's disappeared before, but this time his family in Moscow is so convinced he's dead they ask his friends to go find his body. So the three friends set out on a search for Seryoga. Life on the road with his war pals reinvigorates Kostoya and encourages him to reconnect with his family, and finding loving connection with his father's new children helps him to find himself.?Gelasimov's narrator stumbles through the rubble of a life unlived, its often harsh language full of elegiac mourning. Gelasimov never wastes a word? Thirst brings forth an entirely new toughness, clarity, and elegance.? ? Der Spiegel, Germany

Masterfully translated from its original Russian by award-winning translator Marian Schwartz, Thirst tells the story of 20-year-old Chechen war veteran, Kostya. Maimed beyond recognition by a tank explosion, Kostya spends weeks on end locked inside his apartment, his sole companion the vodka bottles spilling from the refrigerator. But soon Kostya's comfortable, if dysfunctional, cocoon is torn open when he receives a visit from his army buddies who are mobilized to locate a missing comrade. It is through this search for his missing friend that Kostya is able to find himself.