For reasons made clear in this book, Putins Russia will collapse just as Imperial Russia did in 1917 and as Soviet Russia did in 1991. The only questions are when, how violently, and with how much peril for the world. The U.S. election complicates everything, including Putins next land grab, cyber- espionage, relations with China, and much more. Richard Lourie is a leading expert on Russia.
The narrative unfolds through the eyes of Joop, who, during the Nazi occupation, grapples with his desire for paternal approval and the instinct to protect his family. His choices as a young boy lead to a devastating betrayal that echoes through history, revealing the complexities of human morality in times of crisis. Set against the backdrop of present-day Amsterdam, the story intertwines past and present, exploring themes of guilt, responsibility, and the far-reaching consequences of one's actions.
As in his novel The Polish Complex, Konwicki's A Minor Apocalypse stars a narrator and character named Konwicki, who has been asked to set himself on fire that evening in front of the Communist Party headquarters in Warsaw in an act of protest. He accepts the commission, but without any clear idea of whether he will actually go through with the self-immolation. He spends the rest of the day wandering the streets of Warsaw, being tortured by the secret police and falling in love. Both himself and Everyman, the character-author experiences the effects of ideologies and bureaucracies gone insane with, as always in history, the individual struggling for survival rather than offering himself up on the pyre of the greater good. Brilliantly translated by Richard Lourie, A Minor Apocalypse is one of the most important novels to emerge from Poland in the last twenty five years.