Before and During

Written by Vladimir Sharov

Narrated by Al Bernstein

Late Soviet stagnation, Moscow. Alyosha – a writer who suffers from fits accompanied by memory loss – admits himself to a psychiatric institute for experimental treatment.

Inspired by Ivan the Terrible’s “Memorial Book of the Disgraced” and his own spiritual crisis, Alyosha has been trying to record the memories of people in his life who “died before their time, leaving nothing behind except in my memory”. In hospital, however, he changes tack and decides to dedicate his Memorial Book to the memories of the elderly patients in his ward, described to him as alumni of the early-Soviet Institute for Natural Genius. This plan, however, is hijacked by one patient who tells him a story that reaches even further back into the past of the Russian Revolution. He learns about the philosopher, Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed humanity’s greatest task was to physically resurrect its dead ancestors, and Madame de Staël who, through supernatural means, became the midwife of the Bolshevik Revolution and a lover of, among others, Fyodorov, Scriabin and Stalin.

"Before and During" makes for a fantastical and satirical retelling of Russian history, one that is rich in the philosophical and historiosophic legacy of Russian literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heraclon Publishing Canada
• Release date: Jan 1, 1993
• ISBN: 9781989558072

Vladimir Sharov

A historian of late-medieval Russia by training Vladimir Sharov, born in 1952, first turned to fiction in the late 1970s. It was not until the 1990s, however, that his extraordinarily imaginative and daring novels come to the attention of the public. When they did, they caused acrimony and controversy. Before and During in 2014 was his first novel to appear in English, which will be followed in January 2018 by The Rehearsals, both translated by Oliver Ready. He has won all the major Russian literary prizes including the Booker Prize in 2014. Before and During won The Read Russia Prize in 2015.