Well, a visit may be too grand of a word. This is a story of the aftermath of the aliens' visit to our planet. “HAPPINESS, FREE, FOR EVERYONE, AND LET NO ONE BE FORGOTTEN!”Ģ013: When people talk about the 'special' feel of Russian literature, I tend to shrug it away as yet another point of confusion 'Westerners' have with anything Slavic.īut when I tried to explain the feeling this book evoked in me to a few 'Westerners' I startlingly realized that 'it just *feels* so essentially Russian'may indeed be a valid description that encompasses the soul-searching ambiguity, the pursuit of deeper truths shrouded in light sadness, the frustrating but yet revealing lack of answers to the clear divide between right and wrong, and the heart shattering 'scream of soul'. But the soul is the same, that same soul that erupts in that tortured scream in the end.Ī story of a horrific yet fascinating place, a story of an ordinary and unlikable man just trying to get by, a philosophical interlude on humanity and its significance or lack thereof, of greed and wonder, and the fever dream of the soul scream. I read it in the original and in translation (this time side-by-side) and it’s interesting how the magic subtly shifts in a different language, how different angles become more prominent, how the personalities are softly affected by different words and phrases.

In addition to his own writing, he translated Japanese language short stories and novels, as well as some English works with his brother.Ģ021: I read it a few years ago, and reread it now with a bit of trepidation (which luckily proved baseless), and it’s still full of that strange, disorienting, confusing and yet utterly human magic. Arkady Strugatsky became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers in 1964. In 1958, he began collaborating with his brother Boris, a collaboration that lasted until Arkady's death on 12 October 1991. In 1955, he began working as an editor and writer. He worked as a teacher and interpreter for the military until 1955. He trained first at the artillery school in Aktyubinsk and later at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow, from which he graduated in 1949 as an interpreter of English and Japanese. Arkady was drafted into the Soviet army in 1943. In January 1942, Arkady and his father were evacuated from the Siege of Leningrad, but Arkady was the only survivor in his train car his father died upon reaching Vologda. The brothers Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky were Soviet-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated through most of their careers.Īrkady Strugatsky was born 25 August 1925 in Batumi the family later moved to Leningrad.

Roadside picnic book