Yuri Andrukhovych: Московіада (The Moscoviad

The latest addition to my website is Yuri Andrukhovych‘s Московіада (The Moscoviad. Our hero is a Ukrainian poet called Otto Wilhelmovych von F. He has a two-year stipend to write poetry in Moscow, where he is housed with writers from all over the Soviet Union (though,as the year is 1991, the Soviet Union has not got long to go). We follow his day as he drinks copious quantities of alcohol, is critical of the Soviet Union, has something of a picaresque journey round Moscow, meets giant rats, poisonous snakes, a pickpocket, an ex-girlfriend the KGB and a variety of colourful characters, all the while discoursing on life, literature, politics, women, history, language and anything else that comes into his head. It is enormous fun and both witty and serious.

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