Heritage

The future has come and gone, the nuclear war is almost forgotten, not everyone survived, and those who did will never be the same again. The peace treaty did not lead to peace: violence has become the norm and a... necessity, tolerance for it is more contagious than the Bolivian virus. In the concluding part of the trilogy about Dr. Garin, Vladimir Sorokin paints the next, even more distant stage of post-apocalyptic decay. But its reality, paradoxically, seems much more recognizable. True, we do not immediately recognize the main character, but he remains, as a doctor should, an example of dignity and humanity. The train, an immutable image connecting Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet literature, travels from east to west. Its fuel is people, not in a metaphorical sense, but in a literal one, and they have nowhere else to run. But the wonderful doctor and his unusual heirs provide hope that the mad world has not only an end but also a happier continuation.