Chevengur

The Soviet Don Quixote, Chevengur is now seen by many Russian writers as Russia's greatest novel of the last century.

'Platonov is an extraordinary writer, perhaps the most brilliant Russian writer of the twentieth century' - New York Review of Books

Chevengur is recognised as a pinnacle of Russian literature. This is the first English version to truly convey its subtlety and depth.

Zakhar Pavlovich transitions from a world of traditional crafts to working as a train mechanic, driven by his belief in the transformative power of industry. His adopted son, Sasha Dvanov, embraces revolution, trusting it to transform everything—the words we speak and the lives we live, souls and bodies, the soil underfoot and the sun overhead.

In his search for communism, Dvanov joins Stepan Kopionkin, a warrior for the cause, who rides the formidable cart horse, Strength of the Proletariat. Together, they journey across the steppe, encountering counter-revolutionaries, desperados, and visionaries. Eventually, they reach the isolated town of Chevengur, where the belief is held that communism has been achieved because everything non-communist has been eradicated. Yet, even in Chevengur, the revolution seems to recede from sight.

Comic, ironic, grotesque, and disturbingly poetic in its language, Chevengur is a novel about revolutionary ardour and despair. Unpublished during Andrey Platonov's life, it has become one of the most celebrated Russian novels and represents the most ambitious and moving of Platonov's recreations of a world undergoing revolutionary transformation.

'It was from the novel Chevengur that I learned to create "literary worlds". Platonov is a self-taught literary jeweller, a true believer who built dystopias. His love for his characters is instantly conveyed to readers' - Andrey Kurkov

Translated by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler.