The Little Man: a novel (New Russian Writing)

"Merciless and beautiful prose, pithy and precise . . . leaves no one unmoved."—Ex Libris

"Real-life dialogues, vivid imagery, striking metaphors."—Literary Russia

"A remarkable novel of social discontent written by a sure hand."—SNOB

Gangsters take complete control of an industrial town with its corrupt authorities, business, and police. Defending his daughter, the protagonist accidentally shoots the chief gangster and has to go into hiding, first among the homeless at the town garbage dump, and then in the forest among Saami deer-breeders. He becomes transformed from a "little man" into a people's avenger, killing the corrupt mayor and the chief of police. Through a series of tricky manipulations, a different person is accused of the serial murders in the interests of the new gangsters, who seize control of the town in the end.

The setting—a town on the Kola Peninsula above the Arctic Circle where the author spent her formative years—is clearly meant as a portrait in miniature of all of Russia and expresses young people's social discontent. Action-packed and highly revealing, this novel abounds in interesting ethnographic details related to the indigenous Northern tribes of Saami and life in the Northern provinces.

A finalist in two major literary contests, Debut and NOS, and winner of the Northern Star Prize, Liza Alexandrova-Zorina (b. 1984) is an outstanding spokeswoman for her generation and a prolific author. The Little Man is also coming out in France and Egypt.