Buddha's Little Finger (US) / The Clay Machine-Gun (UK) (Chapayev i Pustota)

Viktor Pelevin is one of the most renowned contemporary writers, whose books in the late 1990s significantly influenced the development of post-Soviet literature. Reality intertwined with phantasmagoria, eccentric plots, and a fusion of diverse techniques have become the keys to Pelevin's enduring success with readers. The hero of the novel 'Chapayev and Pustota' is Pyotr Pustota, a patient in a psychiatric hospital who fancies himself a decadent poet. He lives in two different eras: in 1919, he meets Chapayev, serves as a commissar in his division, falls in love with Anka, and even nearly dies in battle; and in another reality, he meets Kawabata, Schwarzenegger, and 'simple Maria'... Retelling the plot of the novel, whose hero tries to understand what reality truly is, is impossible—it must be read.