Le Figaro Livres : The Angel and the Possessed | Vera by Aleksandr Skorobogatov

Astrid de LARMINAT

A great Russian novel where the hero is a husband tortured by the demons of jealousy.

One day a man walks into Nikolai’s apartment — a small two room Khrushchev-era flat where he lives with his wife Vera. Well turned out, smiling, the man pays Vera a visit. They speak in hushed voices, he furtively kisses her hands. Nikolai sees them but doesn’t say anything. Sergeant Bertrand, the visitor, comes back two, three times. Nikolai can’t take it any more. He questions his wife, she denies everything and does not understand what he is talking about. So Nikolai hits her. “Vera was crying and he could barely hold back from striking her again. He lifted her from the floor by her hair, clenching his teeth. She was so beautiful. He loved her so much. If she could only — just for a moment — imagine the infinite agony of his love for her…”

Alexander Skorobogatov forces the reader to change his ideas of compassion. From the start he puts him in the shoes of a husband who beats his completely innocent wife. This is great art: seized with fear, we still suffer with the tormenter of this young woman, who is trusting, patient, sweet and only has one defect: her beauty, a heavenly beauty which drives the baser instincts wild.

A dangerous beauty

Vera is an actress and spends her days at the theatre. Her salary supports the household. Nikolai stays at home and drinks. He is tortured, he waits for his wife to come back and imagines the worst. Sometimes Sergeant Bertrand turns up and keeps him company. In fact from the beginning Sergeant Bertrand came to see Nikolai, not Vera. He talks to Nikolai about his wife, and evokes her dangerous beauty. He drools, and laughs and laughs. As the novel progresses and sinks into the dark shadows of the character, this laugh becomes more invasive as if the whole world was an atrocious farce.

Nikolai is mad of course. There are some attenuating circumstances: finally he witnesses the murder of a school girl he was in love with; it seems he has provoked the death of his son… he is mad, but his hallucinations end up coming true. At least that is what the author would have us believe as he ceaselessly slides from vision or dream into reality, manipulating the reader just as Sergeant Bertrand manipulates poor Nikolai. You end up not being able to distinguish reality from fantasy. This distinction is only secondary. The fight between good and evil passes onto the front line. The novel becomes the stage for drama where Nikolai and Vera are only toys, a theatre of dead souls wandering on the earth, looking for victims among the living, preferably the most harmless, injured lads, angelic young women. With this beautiful tragic novel, the 45-year old Skorobogatov has carved a place for himself in the great Russian tradition.

Astrid de Larminat, Le Figaro Livres, 14/05/2009

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Le Nouvel Observateur – BibliObs: Vera, by Alexandre Skorobogatov

When we talk about wife abuse, we think straightaway about Afghanistan, Thailand, Somalia. But what about Russian women?

Just Google “Russian women” and you will find that, like their Asian or African sisters, women from Russia and Eastern European countries in general are considered as docile objects to be manipulated.

In his first novel translated into French, Aleksandr Skorobogatov describes the every day life of Vera, who is married to a pathologically jealous alcoholic.

The author describes the destructive feeling reinforced by alcohol with heart rending realism and brutality. Nikolai cannot stand seeing his wife flourish with other people and he beats her violently in sudden fits of fury. He beats her because he is unhappy, sad and powerless against the feeling of inferiority caused by Vera’s extreme beauty. The more violent he gets, the more he is afraid that she will leave him. This vicious circle intensifies the paranoid images which haunt his spirit and his verbal and physicalabuse.

Nikolai’s friend Bertrand, who plays an ambiguous role, praises Vera’s beauty but also Nikolai’s strength: “You’re a man, you have been given strength. You have the power. You should be in charge!” A brutal and macho society is laid bare.

Wedged between these men, Vera hardly expresses herself. She suffers insults, blows… and forgives. She even agrees to leave her job as an actress in a theatre to become a cleaner because her husband cannot bear to see her on the stage alongside other men. And when she finally expresses herself it is to defend her husband and accuse others of not understanding him.

But behind this story of jealousy and a submissive woman lurks a critique of the Soviet era. Some men, like Nikolai, drown themselves in vodka and when they run out they have to bribe a supermarket employee to get it for them — otherwise they have to queue with no certainty that they will be able to buy anything at all. The author shows us the face of a corrupt society where it is enough to pay with money or one’s body to get what one wants.

A rather detached novel, with poignant characters, that show a small part of the Soviet reality rarely mentioned.

J. S., Le Nouvel Observateur – BibliObs, 12/05/2009

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NRC Handelsblad: Religion is for wimps | Sergeant Bertrand (Vera*) by Aleksandr Skorobogatov

Sergeant Bertrand, a short novel by Aleksandr Skorobogatov (1963), was published in the Moscow magazine Joenost in 1991. In a recent interview with a Flemish periodical the writer related how the magazine editor had condensed the work to such a degree that he initially decided not to allow his work to be published. However, the writer Andrej Bitov, who teaches at the Moscow Institute for Literature, where Skorobogatov was once a student, and whose work, like Pushkin House, is also well-known in this country, managed to convince him that a new writer should never miss the opportunity to have his work published by a publisher with a wide circulation.

Naturally, the Dutch translation, which was published in Antwerp, includes all the passages that the editor deleted. Although many of them are erotic or cruel, you can’t help but wonder about the decision to omit them, as Moscow had already been flooded by a veritable wave of pornography for a number of years. Most of all however, you question the literary insight of a magazine editor like this who seems to miss the point that these passages are not merely an ineffective or destructive embellishment, but an essential component of the work itself. For they flow from the theme and play a key role in defining the oppressive atmosphere of perversity and obsession that is characteristic of the story.

In fact obsession is what Sergeant Bertrand is about. The introvert and inconspicuous Nikolaj, who drinks and has nothing to do, is married to a strikingly beautiful actress. One day he receives an unexpected visit from a certain Sergeant Bertrand whose insinuations about Vera’s attractiveness and the licentiousness that generally dominates the world of the theatre fuel Nikolaj’s jealousy. The Sergeant’s visits continue and gradually Nikolaj becomes a captive of his own fantasy. He spies on his wife, sees every man as her lover and repeatedly beats up both his so-called rivals and his wife. Through his paranoia he finally lands up in an institution for the insane and alcoholics, from which Sergeant Bertrand helps him to escape, before finally bringing the course of events to a disastrous end.

This is the story line that lies closest to the surface. Yet, it is but one of the many threads which together form a complex, maze-like web in which it is unclear what is real and what only takes place in Nikolaj’s diseased mind, where the boundaries between the various characters lie, or where the past ends and the present begins. Several motifs, such as the death of a newborn son ten years earlier, or the dream about a naked woman with sharp white teeth, invite a Freudian elucidation of the story in which Sergeant Bertrand personifies the unconscious (the Id) in man. Indeed, it is this interpretation most of the critics in Flanders have opted for and one that is justifiable to a certain degree. Nevertheless, I believe that they are ignoring one important point.

Devil

‘Nikolaj seeks God but instead finds the devil on his path’, — says the text on the book jacket. Just as Mephistopheles takes possession of Faust’s soul, so Sergeant Bertrand takes over the soul of the defenceless Nikolaj. He is responsible for Nikolaj’s distorted view of reality, he takes sadistic pleasure in harassing him, and revels in Nikolaj’s suffering and the evil that he generates outside himself.  He is the devil who destroys man and the world. There are too many indications in the story which suggest that its mystic and religious aspects are no accident. In the first place there is what I consider to be the central passage in the story — a passage which is placed precisely in the middle of the book and for good reason — in which Nikolaj finds himself in a church without knowing precisely what he is seeking. The atmosphere of holiness and the priest’s words only rouse his irritation and as he leaves the church he spits behind him. During the conversation following the visit to the church, Sergeant Bertrand ridicules religion as being something for wimps, and through his cunning words he truly gets Nikolaj irrevocably under his spell. In the battle between God and Satan it is definitely the latter who has the upper hand. Nikolaj’s wife, who embodies self-sacrificing love and increasingly resembles a martyr, actually dies a terrible death. It is not without reason that she is referred to somewhere as a ‘goddess’, and it is no coincidence that ‘Vera’ is the Russian word for ‘belief’.

It is not so much Freud who holds sway in Sergeant Bertrand, but Dostoevsky. Of course, the idea behind Sergeant Bertrand is on a far smaller scale than in Dostoevsky’s novels. It is a modest chapel compared to the monumental cathedral that Crime and Punishment for example is, or The Brothers Karamazov or The Demons in particular. However, the characters and themes are clearly related to those of Dostoevsky, as well its mysterious, thriller-like atmosphere.

With this comparison I wish only to point out the richness of the novel rather than detract from Skorobogatov’s unique qualities. He makes no secret of his source of inspiration and in no way is he derivative. On the contrary, it has been many years since such an original work found its way from Russia to this country. It is such a relief, after the everyday routine and moral indifference has seemed to dominate contemporary Russian literature, to be transported to other realms of human existence. Most remarkably, Skorobogatov not only broaches different subjects than his fellow writers, but he writes exceptionally well. I read Sergeant Bertrand,in what is a near-perfect translation, in one sitting, and after I had finished it, it continued to hold me in its grip. It is an impressive debut that whets the reader’s appetite for more to come.

Helen Saelman, CS LITERAIR NRC HANDELSBLAD, 19-2-93

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* «Vera» è l’adattamento italiano del titolo originale del romanzo «Sergeant Bertrand».

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De Standaard der Letteren: All consuming jealousy – Magic Realism by Aleksandr Skorobogatov

Jealousy is an insidious poison. It drives the main character in Aleksandr Skorobogatov’s novel ‘Sergeant Bertrand’ (Vera*) to madness and murder. Or is it all just a figment of his imagination? Skorobogatov does not say.

JOHAN DEPOORTERE

The world in the novels of the Russian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a hallucinatory universe populated by demons and cruel, violent men. Their partners are self-sacrificing, gentle, stunningly beautiful women. It is a world in which the characters oscillate effortlessly between dream and reality, madness and lucidity.

We see this in Skorobogatov’s previously discussed book ‘Earth without Water’ (DSL 21.11.2002) and in his debut novel ‘Sergeant Bertrand,’ now reprinted by The House of Books. In ‘Sergeant Bertrand’ obsessive jealousy brings the main character to ruin. Nikolai is married to Vera, a beautiful, talented actress. He convinces himself that she is every man’s willing plaything. When he attends one of her performances he has a hallucinatory experience in which he sees her standing naked on stage. Nikolai’s love explodes into an all-consuming flame of jealousy fuelled by Sergeant Bertrand who is the main character’s sinister, Faustian, alter ego. The result is madness and murder.

This process in which characters split up and play various roles is one Skorobogatov finds deeply interesting and frequently uses in his work. It enables him to present the story from different viewpoints, thus creating a fascinating cycle of recurring events: Leonid murders the schoolgirl just as Nikolai kills his beloved Vera. Or perhaps not? The author gives nothing away and non-committal statements like ‘They say that…’, keep the reader guessing.

Skorobogatov has extensively revised his debut novel which dates from the early nineties. Nevertheless, the inspiration and background of the story are still closely associated with the turbulent beginnings of post-communism in Russia. The characters are tormented, traumatised figures in a world in which war and social disruption are a part of everyday reality. The text on the dust cover mentions Aleksandr Skorobogatov in the same breath as great masters like Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Poe and Polanski. Whether or not this is so is for the reader to decide. However ‘Sergeant Bertrand’ is without any doubt an absolute must for readers interested in Russian magic realism.

THE WRITER
 The Russian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov (b. 1963) has lived in Antwerp since 1992. Apart from his first novel ‘Sergeant Bertrand’ he has published ‘Audience with the Sovereign’ and ‘Earth without Water’ in Dutch. He is regarded as one of the most remarkable post-communist Russian writers today.

Johan Depoortere, De Standaard der Letteren, 8 april 2004

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* «Vera» è l’adattamento italiano del titolo originale del romanzo «Sergeant Bertrand».

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Gazet van Antwerpen: A disoriented Othello | Vera* di Aleksandr Skorobogatov

Every now and then, albeit very rarely indeed, a novel or story by a totally unknown author gives a glimpse of genius that is totally unexpected and takes you completely by surprise. The surprise is so great, in fact, that you are compelled to read the work a second time, but now with the clear insight of the initiate. The debut novel “Sergeant Bertrand” by the Byelorussian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a rare and truly impressive achievement.

Nikolai lives in a room with his wife Vera. She works mainly at night as an actress. He rarely leaves the room and is afraid of the light. The vodka bottle is often his only companion in a succession of empty days. Until the mysterious Sergeant Bertrand suddenly walks into his room, ‘like an old friend’, and soon becomes a regular visitor.

Who is Sergeant Bertrand? Does he really exist or is he just another personality state of the forlorn Nikolai who has never got over his young son’s death? Skorobogatov cleverly allows the uncertainty about reality and fiction to continue.

With the coming of Bertrand jealousy begins to creep into Nikolai’s mind. Insinuations about Vera’s beauty and the dissipation of show life drive him to madness and he becomes like a disoriented Othello who has lost all touch with reality.

Nikolai loses himself, follows his wife, beats up her alleged lovers and hallucinates about her adulterous acts. The innocent Vera, who gives up everything – including the theatre – to help her husband, is finally driven to actually commit adultery when a supervisor makes this a condition for Nikolai’s discharge from the sanatorium.

With “Sergeant Bertrand” the 29 year old Skorobogatov has written more than a Kafkaesque adaptation of Othello. Instead, he has created a story that is both powerful and difficult to classify in which the main character’s madness is reflected in the reader’s own frantic bewilderment as he seeks to find a hand-hold which the writer does not give him.

All this makes “Sergeant Bertrand” a hallucinatory reading experience in which the reader, oscillating between dream and reality, wholly succumbs to the story. Of course it would be far easier if his name was simply Smith or Jones, but this is not to be: the name to remember is Aleksandr Skorobogatov.

S.V., Gazet van Antwerpen, 9 januari 1993

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* «Vera» è l’adattamento italiano del titolo originale del romanzo «Sergeant Bertrand».

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Gonzo Circus: L’homme fatal | Vera di Aleksandr Skorobogatov

His love for a Belgian student of Slavonic studies, Rose-Marie Vermeulen (who also translated ‘Sergeant Bertrand’), brought the talented young Russian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov to Antwerp at the end of last year for a stay that lasted longer than his visa permitted, with the result that he is now stuck here.

This, however is nothing compared to the situation in which Nikolaj, the protagonist of Skorobogatov’s astounding literary debut finds himself when he falls ‘in love’. Tortured, even to the point of hallucinating, by his indescribably intense fear of losing his stunningly beautiful and devoted stage-actress wife, Nikolaj loses all control over his ego. The diabolic initiator of his irrepressible paranoia appears to be a certain Sergeant Bertrand, who unexpectedly appears one evening as a latent sickness from his youth and intrudes not only in his house but (mainly or perhaps only) in his mind. Roused by Bertrand’s flirtatious behaviour towards his wife and a series of ambiguous innuendos, Nikolaj finds himself caught up in a spiral of insinuations and begins to suffer from hallucinations in which he catches his wife, who has now become a femme fatale, with other men. In his desire (or passion) to enslave his wife, literally and figuratively, he reveals himself to be a true tyrant who spies on his possession with voyeuristic morbidity.

It is no easy task for the reader to gauge at once which part of Nikolaj’s bizarre and schizoid stream of consciousness is real. For Skorobogatov manages to interweave various levels and states of consciousness ever so calamitously: dreams, intoxication, theatricality, childhood memories and so on. These are all layers of fictional story lines in the fiction of the story itself. The challenge for the reader, therefore, is to gain, slowly but sure, some slight insight into this complex knot of events.

The most important, and at the same time most disturbing, insight with which Skorobogatov manages to sway the reader in this clever work of psychological archaeology is that below this seemingly smooth surface of rational thinking,  twisted potential psychos inhabit the deep dungeons of the (macho) mind. The reader may wish to turn to psychoanalytic handbook to find his way through the novel.

SF, Gonzo Circus, nr 6 — January-February 1993

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Vera, by Aleksandr Skorobogatov | Femina Magazine

We are in Russia under Khrushchev. A man has sunk into insanity, and is convinced that his stage-actress wife is cheating on him and “lying through her teeth.” He thinks he sees her nude on stage while all the men in the audience enjoy the view. He forbids her to go out, drowns himself in vodka, lives in constant suspicion then explodes like a pressure cooker.

A mysterious friend of the couple plays a Mephistophelian role to fan the doubts about Vera’s honesty. This ever so beautiful woman could not but personify carnal and moral corruption. This fascinating internal monologue evokes the absurd of the best Eastern European writers. A dark masterpiece of the absurd.

Véra, Alexandre Skorobogatov, Ed. Autrement, 116 p

Femina Magazine (Suisse), Edipresse Group, mai 2009

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Vera, by Alexandre Skorobogatov | Matricule des Anges

What do Nikolai, the hero of Vera, Paul in Chabrol’s Hell and Poprischin, the petty clerk in Gogol’s Diary of a Madman all have in common?

Virginie Mailles Viard

They are all in love with a woman, and all thrown headlong into tragedy. Something has come loose in Nikolai’s head. He has completely lost that tenuous ability to change with reality. When his wife Vera half opens the door to their small dark apartment – Nikolai cannot stand the light – he thinks this is so she can whisper to her lovers to turn them away. In his paranoid and schizophrenic delirium Nikolai has fabricated a companion, Sergeant Bertrand, who exacerbates his suffering through the swirling cigar smoke and dry click of his cigarette lighter. Vera would like to shout out that this is all false, but he knows well that no one could resist such a beautiful woman, a talented and popular actress.

The book opens like a play where from the first scene the action has already taken root and destiny marches on ineluctably. Vera’s story could have been just that of a woman who is the victim of her husband’s crazy jealousy. But Aleksandr Skorobogatov has set up a subtle immersion in his hero’s deliriums, leaving the reader a few short breaths of air from time to time. Just to touch the fragile frontier between the reality that escapes Nikolai and the images that he creates that shout out they are true. The narrative goes through the hero’s and the narrator’s hands, muddling their voices. “She assured me that the dressing rooms are locked, but who will answer this question for me:does she always lock the door when she dresses before the show?(…) he didn’t believe her:not true, not true…“ After furiously demolishing Vera’s theatrical partner, Nikolai insists that she give up her career as an actress. Behind closed doors he will be the only viewer of his wife’s altercations, and the protagonist in the destruction of their relationship. Skorobogatov makes a precision job of describing Nikolai’s visions in a simple and detached, almost laconic, style to draw the heart rending picture of a man racked with love and madness.

VERA
d’ALEXANDRE SKOROBOGATOV
Traduit du russe par Dany Savelli, Autrement, 117 p., 14 €

Virginie Mailles Viard, Matricule des Anges, No 102 – April 2009

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Aleksandr Skorobogatov: a young Russian literary lion | Het Laatste Nieuws

As we know, Russian novels are not only thick but they also teach us important lessons about life. Many works in classical Russian literature and in the 20th century contain great fundamental truths and an essential message. Recently, however, things seem to be changing.

Prof. Dr. Emmanuel WAEGEMANS

In the perestroika period, several literary works were published which flouted all these expectations, often deliberately: there was no important message let alone any fundamental truths, and the writing often left a lot to be desired on the purely literary front. Many of them described the general chaos that enveloped Russia – the often complex tangle of knots located in the minds, and nether regions, of the Russians. In this sense you could of course see them as a reflection of the whole post-communist mess and therefore significant.

Most of the work being published today has spent several years tucked away in a drawer. Often they were too shocking, innovative or daring for the time of their writing, but written in a form or style that no longer appeals to us in our day and age. The  controversial writer Viktor Jerofejev’s ‘shocking’ novel ‘Russian Beauty’ is a clear example of this: although written in the early eighties and therefore in a period of complete stagnation under Brezhnev and the many taboos associated with it, it has only recently been published.

The situation is quite different for Sergeant Bertrand, a story by the young Russian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov. This is absolutely unique in Russian literature in general, and especially so in recent years. The writer is a ‘handsome young literary lion’ who managed to publish this story in Russia last year. This in itself is an extraordinary feat, firstly as Russian publishing houses are inundated with manuscripts dating from before perestroika, and secondly because Russian publishers are having to survive under the miserable conditions of today’s Russia (high cost of living, galloping inflation, shortage of paper) and are therefore only interested in publishing blockbusters (all sorts of scandal books on the licentious monk Rasputin, the countless lovers of Catherine the Great or books about sex or astrology). Despite all this, Aleksandr Skorobogatov managed to win a prestigious literary award for this story (“the best story of 1991”). Which is quite an achievement in a huge country like Russia!

When you start reading Sergeant Bertrand you understand why it won this prize. It is a fascinating story that immediately grabs you by the throat (and quite honestly, by other parts of your anatomy) and doesn’t let go. The style is very concise and pointillistic without the clutter of unnecessary details. As in minimalist music, the recurring elements heighten the reader’s apprehension. And this makes the story extremely forceful. The young lion manages to captivate his reader with a story that is both malicious and voyeuristic. The reader is drawn in and almost becomes an accessory to the dramatic ending.

But there is more. The book is brimming with mysteries and enigmas. The writer seems to cultivate this uncertainty about who has done what and the tension increases as the story progresses. What is the book about? A failed marriage? Infidelity? Jealousy? Vengeance or revenge for the sensual or sexual assertiveness of women? Or is it about the personality duplication, a jealous husband who becomes schizophrenic because strange men undress his beautiful, sensuous wife with their eyes and their hands? Even a first cursory reading will make us realise that we are dealing not only with a prose writer but also a future scriptwriter. This story would make an incredible film with an atmosphere worthy of a Polanski.

All these elements make Sergeant Bertrand an extraordinarily exciting story by a young imaginative writer who takes us into a world that is ambiguous, fascinating and at times bordering on the sick and perverse. In short, Mr Skorobogatov is a stellar talent, one to keep an eye out for. Dedalus (the publisher) has once again struck gold, but this time not with a handsome local lion, but one that comes from Russia. The translation and  the design are excellent. And if the Russians are coming, as they say, then may they come in droves!

Manu WAEGEMANS, Het Laatste Nieuws, 24-25 oktober 1992

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Contemporary Russian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov: press and reviews on the books

Press about ‘Sergeant Bertrand’
(French title: ‘Véra’, Alexandre Skorobogatov,
Italian title: ‘Vera’, Aleksandr Skorobogatov,
Dutch title: ‘Sergeant Bertrand’, Aleksandr Skorobogatov,
Russian title: ‘Сержант Бертран’, Александр Скоробогатов)

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Le Figaro Livres:
A great Russian novel where the hero is a husband tortured by the demons of jealousy. With this beautiful tragic novel, Skorobogatov has carved a place for himself in the great Russian tradition. [ read more ]

Le Nouvel Observateur – BibliObs:
When we talk about wife abuse, we think straightaway about Afghanistan, Thailand, Somalia. But what about Russian women? Just Google “Russian women” and you will find that, like their Asian or African sisters, women from Russia and Eastern European countries in general are considered as docile objects to be manipulated. In his first novel translated into French, Aleksandr Skorobogatov describes the every day life of Vera, who is married to a pathologically jealous alcoholic. The author describes the destructive feeling reinforced by alcohol with heart rending realism and brutality. (…) But behind this story of jealousy and a submissive woman lurks a critique of the Soviet era. (…) A rather detached novel, with poignant characters, that show a small part of the Soviet reality rarely mentioned. [ read more ]

Gazet van Antwerpen:
Every now and then, albeit very rarely indeed, a novel or story by a totally unknown author gives a glimpse of genius that is totally unexpected and takes you completely by surprise. The surprise is so great, in fact, that you are compelled to read the work a second time, but now with the clear insight of the initiate. The debut novel “Sergeant Bertrand” by the Byelorussian writer Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a rare and truly impressive achievement. [ read more ]

Matricule des Anges:
Aleksandr Skorobogatov has set up a subtle immersion in his hero’s deliriums, leaving the reader a few short breaths of air from time to time. Just to touch the fragile frontier between the reality that escapes Nikolai and the images that he creates that shout out they are true. The narrative goes through the hero’s and the narrator’s hands, muddling their voices. [ read more ]

NRC Handelsblad:
it has been many years since such an original work found its way from Russia to this country. It is such a relief, after the everyday routine and moral indifference has seemed to dominate contemporary Russian literature, to be transported to other realms of human existence. Most remarkably, Skorobogatov not only broaches different subjects than his fellow writers, but he writes exceptionally well. I read Sergeant Bertrand in one sitting, and after I had finished it, it continued to hold me in its grip. It is an impressive debut that whets the reader’s appetite for more to come. [ read more ]

Page des Libraires:
Of Russian origin, Aleksandr Skorobogatov has written what could become a modern Horla. [ read more ]

Knack:
In the first place, Skorobogatov wrote a beautiful, almost classic study.

Gonzo Circus:
Astounding literary debut. [ read more ]

Femina Magazine (Suisse):
This fascinating internal monologue evokes the absurd of the best Eastern European writers. A dark masterpiece of the absurd. [read more ]

Gazet van Antwerpen:
The previous year, ‘Sergeant Bertrand’ received an important award in Moscow, and the young author became a rising star at the literary firmament.

Het Laatste Nieuws:
This is absolutely unique in Russian literature in general, and especially so in recent years. (…) When you start reading Sergeant Bertrand you understand why it won this prize. It is a fascinating story that immediately grabs you by the throat (and quite honestly, by other parts of your anatomy) and doesn’t let go. The style is very concise and pointillistic without the clutter of unnecessary details. As in minimalist music, the recurring elements heighten the reader’s apprehension. And this makes the story extremely forceful. The young lion manages to captivate his reader with a story that is both malicious and voyeuristic. The reader is drawn in and almost becomes an accessory to the dramatic ending. (…) This story would make an incredible film with an atmosphere worthy of a Polanski. (…) In short, Mr Skorobogatov is a stellar talent, one to keep an eye out for. [ read more ]

Focus Knack:
A novel that reads as a terrifying vision and mystifies you as a David Lynch film. Great literature, great author.

Algemeen Dagblad:
What he shows with this story is that decades of censorship and social-realistic literature are not sufficient to definitively exterminate individual strength of mind. There is still hope for the Russians.

De Standaard der Letteren:
Skorobogatov is considered as one of the most interesting authors of post-communist Russia. [ read more ]

Lektuurgids:
A Russian Edgar Allan Poe story, written in a sublime and breathtaking way.

Gierik/NVT:
This novel is in all respects one of the most astonishing books I have read.
Press about ‘Earth without Water’
(Dutch title: ‘Aarde zonder water’, Aleksandr Skorobogatov,
Russian title: ‘Земля безводная’, Александр Скоробогатов)

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Literaturnaja Rossia:
It has been a long, very long time since I have read a novel that I could only tear myself away from after I have turned the last page. Strong, sharp, dramatic and… bitter. A great book!

Ezhenedelnyj zhournal:
Here is yet another in the string of successes from the ‘non-commercial’ series by Olma-Press, without any doubt ‘Category A literature’. I put the word ‘non-commercial’ between bashful inverted commas, because it contains the connotation of ‘not easy to read, not absorbing’. But ‘Earth without Water’ is compelling, and sweeps you along like a whirlpool — somewhat in contradiction to the title.

Druzhba narodov:
In my opinion the best novel of last year was published in the series ‘Original’ of publishing house ‘Olma’. The leader I refer to is ‘Earth without Water’ by Aleksandr Skorobogatov. Aleksandr Skorobogatov’s novel deals with the traditional themes of Russian literature, and in my opinion, he does it with the same refinement as did the representatives thereof, thanks to which Russian literature is now considered great.

De Standaard der Letteren:
To say that ‘Earth without Water’ can be read as a thriller does injustice to Aleksandr Skorobogatov’s work. Yes, this book sweeps you along from the first page to the last. Yes, it is well written, with a lot of irony and black humour, but it is also a story with many layers and a subtly hidden message. It is a hallucinatory image of today’s Russia, but the motives, passions and cowardice of the personages are universal.

Znamya:
Aleksandr Skorobogatov is an outstanding author.
Press about ‘Audience with the Sovereign’
(Dutch title: ‘Audiëntie bij de vorst’, Aleksandr Skorobogatov,
Russian title: ‘Аудиенция у князя’, Александр Скоробогатов)

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Gazet van Antwerpen:
‘Audience with the Sovereign’ confirms his extraordinary talent, which already emerged from his debut, the novel ‘Sergeant Bertrand’. It is one of the most wonderful literary works of recent times. Aleksandr Skorobogatov continues, in a modern and convincing way, the great literary tradition of the 19th century orthodox Russia of Dostoyevsky and Gogol.

Vrijzinnige lezer:
A marvelous piece of work that combines the Great Russian traditions with the achievements of the modern European novel.

Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift:
You read Skorobogatov in one befuddled breath.

Gazet van Antwerpen:
It would be a lot easier if his name was simply Smith or so, but this is unfortunately not the case: Aleksandr Skorobogatov is a name to remember.

Vertalingen door Vertaalbureau RM Vermeulen