Blue Lard (Russian: Голубое сало, romanized: Goluboe salo) is a postmodern novel by Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin. It was first published in 1999 by Ad Marginem.
 Cover of the 2024 English edition by NYRB | |
| Author | Vladimir Sorokin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Голубое сало |
| Translator | Max Lawton |
| Country | Russia |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | Novel, Postmodern fiction, Dystopian fiction |
| Publisher | Ad Marginem (Russian), NYRB (English) |
Publication date | 1999 |
Published in English | 2024 |
Plot edit
The plot of the book revolves around a substance called "blue lard" that the clones of Russian writers produce when they write[1] which is then used to power a hidden reactor on the moon.[2] Some of the cloned Russian writers include Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Akhmatova, Chekhov and Nabokov.[2] The novel takes place in two timelines: the second half of the 21st century (set in Siberia and Moscow in the future) and an alternative timeline of 1954 (in Joseph Stalin's Moscow and Adolf Hitler's Third Reich).
References edit
- ^ Illingworth, Dustin (25 February 2024). "This Book Is Baffling, Debauched and Perfectly Human". New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
It begins in Russia, in 2068, when scientists have set about cloning the country's great past writers in a clandestine Siberian lab. The novels, stories and poems these clones produce are of little importance; the scientists' true quarry is the blue lard that forms on the clones' bodies as they perform the "script process."
- ^ a b "Blue Lard". Publishers Weekly. 12 December 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
Their crazed output turns out to be a mere by-product of the scientists' true purpose: to produce the "blue lard" used to power a hidden reactor on the moon.
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