Pushkin House is the major novel of one of the Soviet Union's most remarkable contemporary writers. Intensely psychological and concerned with its own relation to the rich past of Russian letters, Bitov's work makes him an heir to Nabokov and a gifted, powerful opponent of Socialist Realism.

Pushkin House

Bitov, Andreï

The Harvill Press

Bitov makes the journey out of Russia to the Caucasus and finds himself in thrall to an old and independent civilization, yet never loses sight of the fact that he is both an agent of Soviet Empire and a captive of his real beloved homeland, Russia.

A Captive of the Caucasus

Travel

Europe

Harpercollins

Traversing through the former Soviet Union in the waning days of the Empire, a poet philosophizes on humankind's place in the world with two companions, a sober scientist and a drunken landscape painter.

The Monkey Link: A Pilgrimage Novel

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

Russians visit the Caucasus with a sense of homecoming, Andrei Bitov--one of the Soviet Union's most gifted stylists--has remarked. They find there a world familiar from the moral and philosophic landscapes of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Tolstoy. In Lessons of Armenia, the first of the two personal memoirs that constitute this book, Bitov explores the way Pushkin's "confines of boundless Russia" seem never to be truly escapable. Though held in thrall by Armenia, a captive of the Caucasus, Bitov the traveler is a captive, however alienated, of his homeland, too. Bitov's works characteristically proceed from and comment on one another, and the realization of captivity leads to a different journey; the second account, Choosing a Location, an entertaining impressionistic record of his travels in Soviet Georgia, is Bitov's quest for his own place and time. Compellingly conceived and spectacularly crafted, A Captive of the Caucasus is an intellectually spirited inquiry into the persistent idea of homeland and the individual's identity, cultural and creative. When Lessons of Armenia first appeared in the Soviet Union in 1969, censors deleted its subtitle, "Journey Out of Russia," and made numerous small cuts. This translation restores all the deletions. Choosing a Location could not be published in the Soviet Union.

History & Criticism

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

The Symmetry Teacher: A Novel

From one of the greatest Russian writers of the past half century comes a metaphysical mystery novel that defies categorization and confounds expectation. Andrei Bitov's The Symmetry Teacher presents itself as the "echo" of an older British novel Bitov once read and had long forgotten. Unable even to recall the name of that novel's author, Bitov reconstructs its literary vision through the fog of memory, creating a group of stories nestled together like a matryoshka doll. In doing so, Bitov evokes the anxieties of the late and post-Soviet decades, confronting urgent questions of conscience and self-deception through an innovative style that revels in paradox and sleight of hand. 
Unified by the delightfully maddening search for the identity of a writer toiling in obscurity, The Symmetry Teacher takes us through a curious series of episodes: A man meets the devil on a park bench and the devil shows him photographs of the fall of Troy, Shakespeare's legs, and a terrible event that will take place in his future. A young poet fleeing his past is stranded on a windswept island and tormented by a lover and her shape-shifting evil twin. Three friends, unable to become writers, start a literary society where books and manuscripts are neither read nor returned and new members are accepted only if their work is unwritten. A king who reigns over all possible worlds and uses his power to remove stars from the sky turns out to be the compiler of the Encyclopædia Britannica. 
Writing with impish daring, Bitov crafts an enchanting fiction from interwoven fables. The result challenges the boundaries between life and literature, author and reader, and memory and imagination, exploring the sacrifices that a writer may make out of ardor for his art. Mingling fantasy and satire with moral concern, Bitov is a deserving heir to the tradition of Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Bulgakov. The Symmetry Teacher showcases the work of a postmodern master at the height of his craft.

Literary

In the waning years of the Empire, a poet traverses Russia, from the Baltics to the capital, to the shores of the Black Sea. Along the way, he discusses man's place in the scheme of things with, among others, a very sober scientist and a very drunken landscape painter. He is harassed by the authorities, spends time on a movie set, and is an eyewitness to the August 1991 coup. Full of talk, philosophical speculation and dark humor, this sweeping, intricately structured novel challenges the form even as it presents a highly original view of the world and the former Soviet Union.

Ardis Publishers

Life in Windy Weather: Short Stories

Science & Math

Environment

ARDIS

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Books by Bitov, Andreï

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bitov, Andreï. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Pushkin House

A Captive of the Caucasus

The Monkey Link: A Pilgrimage Novel

A Captive of the Caucasus

Pushkin House

The Symmetry Teacher: A Novel

The Monkey Link: A Pilgrimage Novel

The Symmetry Teacher: A Novel

Pushkin House

Life in Windy Weather: Short Stories