A truly great work" – ZEIT Podcast "Was liest du gerade?", Adam Soboczynski
"I have rarely read it done so brilliantly, how immediate political experiences are recast. That is truly great literature." – ZEIT Podcast "Was liest du gerade?", Iris Radisch
"an absurdly playful and light-hearted tour de force" – Focus
"With her debut, Valeria Gordeev effortlessly writes herself into literary history" – DIE ZEIT
"a farce in the best sense of the word. And as such, it is wonderfully successful. [...] This book’s joy in storytelling knows no bounds." – Andreas Platthaus, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
"Valeria Gordeev is making literary history" - ZEIT Newsletter Was wir lesen
"virtuoso, mad and genuine" - Frankfurter Rundschau, Judith von Sternburg
"Gordeev has achieved great art here" – Corinne Orlowski, rbb radio
Konstantin and Lada have lost touch. Whilst Konstantin is stuck in an underground research laboratory preserving Lenin’s body, his sister Lada is struggling in Berlin with a renovation project that is rendering her flat uninhabitable. She can’t understand why her brother stayed in Moscow after the war began, but Konstantin is in deep trouble, trying to steal specimen from Lenin for his godfather – an oligarch with transhumanist ambitions who is also putting Lada in a tight spot.
Eloquent, spirited and intoxicating. A cabinet of curiosities and a wild ride. Valeria Gordeev masterfully weaves the story of a family between Berlin, Kyiv and Moscow with the upheavals of our present day.