Chevengur Andrey Platonov

Harvill Secker £22

Soviet author Platonov dramatised his ambivalence about communism in dream-like yet earthy narratives that have drawn admiration from writers as various as Penelope Fitzgerald and Nell Zink. Hailed as his masterpiece, Chevengur is a satirical picaresque novel that went unpublished in his lifetime and only now arrives fully translated into English. The gargantuan narrative follows an orphaned hero whose wanderings through Russia lead to a remote town where the yo-yoing hopes of put-upon locals portray the lure and disillusionment of revolutionary ideals. Challenging but rewarding.