The New Moscow Philosophy

A communal apartment in late Soviet-era Moscow. An elderly tenant – the daughter of the apartment's original owner – has disappeared after seeing a ghost. Over the course of a weekend the other occupants meet in the kitchen to argue over who is more deserving of the room she has apparently vacated. If the old woman was murdered, each tenant is a suspect since each would have a motive: the "augmentation of living space." As two of the tenants engage in an extended debate over the nature of evil, they take it upon themselves to solve the mystery and nail the culprit, and it becomes clear that the entire tableau is a reprise of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Displaying a sharp wit and a Gogolian sense of the absurd, Pyetsukh visits anew the age-old debate over the relationship between life and art, arguing that in Russia life imitating literature is as true as literature reflecting life, and the novel strikes a perfect balance between the presentation of philosophical arguments and their discussion in humorous dialogue. A vital work of contemporary Russian prose, The New Moscow Philosophy was immediately translated into many European languages upon its publication in 1989. This is its first English translation.

David Cozy, Review of Contemporary Fiction

"a snarl, delightfully tangled, of philosophy, humor, and humanity; it's not unlike the lives we live."

Necessary Fiction

"Despite the seriousness of Pyetsukh's idea, it is refreshingly comical. The book's mock-historical narrative tone is self-aware, both embracing and mocking its grand aspirations."

About the Author

Born November 18, 1946 in Moscow, Vyacheslav Alekseyevich Pyetsukh is a prolific writer of both fiction and essays. Having taught high-school history and Russian for more than a decade, he embarked on a successful career as one of Russia's most published contemporary authors, quickly becaming a major figure of the late-Soviet period and thereafter. He has published fifteen collected editions of his work, and both his essays and short stories appear regularly in leading Russian journals. Pyetsukh and his wife Irina, an art dealer, divide their time between Moscow and a village in Tverskaya.Born and raised in Toronto, Krystyna Steiger is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, she received her PhD in Russian Literature from McGill University in Montreal, where she currently resides and works as a freelance literary translator.

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