Mikhail Elizarov is the author of the novels 'Earth,' 'Pasternak,' and 'Cartoons' (shortlisted for the National Bestseller Award), and the short story collections 'Nails' (shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize) and 'We Went Out to Smoke for 17 Years' (winner of the NOS Prize reader vote). 'The Librarian,' a novel that won the Russian Booker Prize and sparked controversy, is a novel about sacred texts—but without the 'book dust' of Borges and Eco: here, books are used for their intended archetypal purpose: framed in metal, they crush fragile skulls, shatter destinies, call to the stake, and intrude into the fabric of the universe. ...The dreary industrial novels of the forgotten Soviet writer Gromov, years after his death, reveal magical properties: each one is capable of imbuing the reader with supernatural powers. It's not just the text that's important, but also the ink and paper; several bibliophile sects hunt for rarities, and the right to read a book must be fought with an axe in hand... 'Elizarov and Sorokin work on the same material, but Sorokin deliberately travesties and parodies this material (in the spirit of Sots Art), while Elizarov takes it completely seriously' (Viktor Toporov).