A beautifully interwoven set of stories depicting life in the far reaches of Siberia and Chechnya in late Soviet times and early Putin days. Marra manages to evoke the apocalyptic landscapes of a northern mining town and post-war Grozny, as well as the pastoral landscape of the Chechen mountains. He also creates a seemingly credible set of characters: homo sovieticus, corrupt officials, drug dealers, kleptocrats, gratuitously sadistic soldiers and criminal gangs, victims. The wandering story of two brothers. An exploration of the small details of what went wrong in post-Soviet Russia. Quite an amazing book.
I am left wondering how he developed this imaginary landscape that he writes in. There is no indication that he studied this field other than the books he credits in his acknowledgements. I am wondering how he developed such a feel for the gritty details of these lives.
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