Eros grass

Author: (Russia) Shishkin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Erosion is a selected work of Russian literature in the 2005 edition of the "21st Century Annual Best Foreign Novel" award. The novel begins with a translator working for a Swiss refugee camp who originally came from the Soviet Union. Through a series of Q&A sessions, it depicts a large group of people from the former Soviet Union—those suffering, fleeing persecution, mentally ill, liars, and others—who yearn to escape their cruel homeland and enter the "paradise" of Switzerland. They tell their own and others' harsh stories, persistently and in vain attempting to escape reality and squeeze into a fantasy paradise. This Q&A gradually transforms into discussions and narratives about various cruel stories in history and reality, myths, and legends. It is interwoven with descriptions of the translator's life experiences, his bizarre letters to a distant island nation's "Dear Nauchdonozavul," and the story of an actress, Isabella, from her childhood aunt to her death at the age of 100, as well as her fragmented diary entries about her love, achievements, and the big and small events in her long life. All the plotlines are open-ended, reflecting the various attitudes and mental states of contemporary people, intertwining the author's cold and sharp scrutiny of human society, profound philosophical reflections, and broad humanitarian concern.