Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
The brothers Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky (1925 –1991) and Boris Natanovich Strugatsky (1933 – 2012) were Soviet Russian writers who are inextricably linked as collaborators in some of the best and most provocative science fiction beyond US and British shores and beyond — and influenced by — Stanislaw Lem of Poland. Despite the Cold War, their books crawled to some recognition in the West in the Sixties and Seventies, often in garish DAW paperback editions. I hazard a guess that the 1979 film “Stalker,” directed by Andrei Tarkovsky with a screenplay by the brothers based loosely on Roadside Picnic, ignited a re-reading of the original brilliant novel. This naturally led to an interest in all their other writings. Their complete works in Russian run to 33 volumes. Meanwhile, here in the US, Chicago Review Press is doing a splendid job as their publisher.
The Snail on the Slope
The Snail on the Slope
A hugely respected science fiction classic brought back into print in a brand new translation
The Snail on the Slope is a neglected masterpiece by Russian science fiction greats Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, who thought of it as ther "most complete and important work." now, in a stunning translation, this tour de force is ready to be introduced to a new generation of American readers. The novel takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the Forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive but garrulous people, and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the Forest. Candide crashed in the Forest years ago and wants to return to the Administration. Their journeys are surprising and bizarre, and readers are left to puzzle out the mysteries of these foreign environments. Brilliant, enigmatic, and revelatory, The Snail on the Slope is one of the greatest literary works to come out of Soviet Russia.