The article discusses two novels of modern Russian writer Aleksandr Terekhov
– Каменный мост (Stone Bridge) and Немцы (Germans). The main aim of the article
is trying to find the answer to a question how a book can be riveting and unsavory
at the same time. Both books were appreciated by readers and critics and won
literary awards – first in 2009 and the second in 2012. Both are very difficult to
read because of the author’s specific style – combination of realistic message with
modernist stream of consciousness. The writer’s style comprises also a great dose of
cynicism and poisonous irony. The first novel is a sort of a journalist’s investigation
and concerns the tragic accident from the Stalinist past. The second can be called
a pastiche of an occupational novel and a critical look at the corruption in clerical
system in Russia.
