Das Puschkinhaus

Leningrad, November 1961. The morning after the revolution celebrations, the wind howls through the deserted city, bursts open the window of a small palace, and reveals the philologist Ljowa Odojewzew lying dead on the floor of his devastated study, a duel pistol belonging to Pushkin in his hand. This scene marks the beginning of Andrej Bitov's legendary novel, which, alongside Nabokov's talent, Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, and Jerofejew's Moscow-Petushki, is considered one of the defining works of a new generation of authors in Russia. Ljowa, a scion of an aristocratic family, an indifferent "hero of our time," torn between various women, has settled into a scholarly existence. Shaken by his encounter with his grandfather, who spent thirty years in labor camps, Ljowa nonetheless chooses the path of his father. "Fathers and Sons" connects the insight.