An epic, quirky novel written in the Russian tradition
Not only fear will eat your soul, but also opportunism and materialism.
Children of Brezhnev is a story of love and betrayal set against the backdrop of the economic and spiritual decline of the Soviet Union with its underlying ethnic tensions, the Afghan war and the slow but steady criminalization of the country. The novel culminates in the violent transition to a free market leading to a new Russia where the higher echelons of society and the underworld finally merge.
Original title
Kinderen van Brezjnev
November 2014
504 pages
7000 copies sold
Sana Valiulina (Tallinn, 1964) studied Norwegian language and literature in Moscow and has lived in Amsterdam since 1989. She previously wrote The Cross (2000), Didar and Farouk (2006 Libris Literature Prize nomination) and One Hundred Years of Sociability (2010).
Press comments:
About Didar and Farouk:
‘Monumental, epic novel.’ de Volkskrant
‘A crushing, empathically written, anti-Soviet novel (…) her masterwork. ’ NRC Handelsblad
‘The novel evokes the great Russian narrative tradition (…) a monument.’ De Groene Amsterdammer
About One Hundred Years of Sociability:
‘Valiulina invokes the emptiness of the decent, high-society, with as much disgust as she bringsto the decay of the underworld.’ – NRC Handelsblad
