OK it looks to me as if Sorokin is the illegitimate brainchild of David Lynch, Dostojewski and Shirley Jackson. It all starts idyllic enough with a country doctor named Garin being stuck in a snowstorm in a little village without any horses for his vehicle. He is on his way to a remote village with some medicine for the people there who face an outbreak of a mysterious plague. But things quickly begin to take a completely different turn when Gorin and the naïve coachman Kosma meet dwarfs and giants on their sledge ride (pulled by tiny tiny horses), the plague turns people into Zombies, the radio is showing live pictures, a paste lets felt grow and more weird things are happening.

Sorokin created a fairy tale with some ingredients of a high tech science fiction world. He shows a grotesque imaginary Russia on the brink of times. An optimistic and at the same time highly disturbing book which I tremendously enjoyed.

“Vodka after tea keeps the soul frost-free!” 

Highly recommended and an especially great read if you are sitting on the train and there is a bit of a snow storm outside.

Have you read anything by Sorokin? What else could you recommend?

Check out Daphne du Maurier’s “Ein Tropfen Zeit“ which has an equally weird atmosphere and of course the master of the new weird genre Jeff Vandermeer with his Area X trilogy.