Vladimir Sorokin’s first published novel, The Queue, is a sly comedy about the late Soviet “years of stagnation.” Thousands of citizens are in line for . . . nobody knows quite what, but the rumors are flying. Leather or suede? Jackets, jeans? Turkish, Swedish, maybe even American? It doesn’t matter–if anything is on sale, you better line up to buy it. Sorokin’s tour de force of ventriloquism and formal daring tells the whole story in snatches of unattributed dialogue, adding up to nothing less than the real voice of the people, overheard on the street as they joke and curse, fall in and out of love, slurp down ice cream or vodka, fill out crossword puzzles, even go to sleep and line up again in the morning as the queue drags on....

Mr. Sorokin's latest work is named after Ivan the Terrible's 16th-century KGB. These 21st-century oprichniki, however, drive around in their Chinese-made Mercedes and use computers, but still behave like feudal lords. The novel is set in 2028, when all that counts are oil, gas and an unswerving loyalty to a tyrant and his henchmen. A satire of today's Russia, where three quarters of the senior politicians and bureaucrats have a background in the security services -just like ex-KGB colonel Vladimir Putin. Description in Spanish: En el siglo XVI, el despota ruso Ivan el Terrible establecio la oprichnina, una especie de estado de emergencia que otorgaba al zar poderes absolutos. Una ola de terror y de sangre invadio Rusia. Los oprichniks, todopoderosos integrantes de la guardia personal de Ivan, llevaban a cabo su voluntad sembrando el miedo y la muerte. Todavia en el siglo XXI este periodo historico ejerce una peligrosa fascinacion. El oprichnik de la Nueva Rusia, Andrey Komyaga, narra en primera persona su jornada. Su agenda es apretada: ahorcar al noble caido en desgracia, ocuparse de los asuntos amorosos de la Soberana. Desde su fanatizado punto de vista conoceremos la Rusia de 2027, aislada del resto del mundo por la Gran Muralla y gobernada con mano de hierro por el omnipotente Soberano, una sociedad sumergida en la increible mezcla de pasado medieval y futuro tecnologico. Vladimir Sorokin, el mas provocativo y mordaz autor de la Rusia contemporanea, ha sido el unico que se ha atrevido a reflejar en la literatura las alarmantes realidades politicas de la Rusia actual. El resultado es esta aturdidora novela, corta, concentrada, sarcastica. El caracter profetico de la ucronia de Sorokin la situa al lado de las mas angustiosas visiones de Orwell y Zamiatin....