The Round-Dance of Water - (Russian Literature) by Sergey Kuznetsov (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the man Arturo Péeacute;rez-Reverte has called "the most talented young Russian author" comes this extraordinary family saga, a journey into the depths of the human soul.

The Round-dance of Water is a detailed portrait of three generations of a large family, but in this story there is no division into primary and secondary characters: each individual fate carries its weight and runs into the bloody river of the twentieth century. The novel drifts between years, tones, and styles, and the range of its influences is overwhelming, ranging from Rudyard Kipling to Andrei Platonov and Daniil Kharms, from gangster movies to Japanese anime.

Review Quotes

"A whirlpool that drags a swimmer to the bottom, into death and oblivion, it is also a waterspout lifting one above the surface of life. Finally, it's the eternal cycle we know about from our schooldays. Sergey Kuznetsov's novel is a battle with the fear of death. The recipe is simple: love those who are close to you, and remember that you are neither the beginning, nor the end. Yes, this unusual family saga also resembles a whirlpool, engulfing its readers and holding them till the last page."

"An unusual chronicle of our time, of the past decades. It's not only the story of various characters, not only a portrait gallery. This is a history of human passions, a "rounddance" of desire told in 108 chapters (an essential number in Buddhist culture)."

About the Author

Sergey Kuznetsov was born in Moscow in 1966. In the late 1990s he became a leading Russian film and pop-culture critic, and rose to prominence as one of the pioneers of the Internet in Russia. He has actively contributed to magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Playboy, Vogue, and L'Officiel. In 2001 he became the first Russian journalist to be awarded the Knight Fellowship at Stanford University.

Valeriya Yermishova is a freelance translator. She studied French language and literature and economics at State University of New York at Binghamton and picked up translation certificates at NYU and the University of Chicago. She is active in the translation community and served as president-elect and president of the New York Circle of Translators between 2014 and 2016. She currently lives in New York City.