Viktor Remizov
| Volya volnaya | Free and Wild Novel. AST. Moscow 2014. 412 pages |
| Awards: | 2014 Big Book shortlist 2014 Russian Booker Prize shortlist 2014 NOS Award shortlist |
| Foreign rights: | Arabic, Estonia, France, Germany, Macedonia, Romania |
A village in the boundless hunting and fishing grounds of Siberia. In this wilderness, so far off from Moscow, everyone depends on each other and everyone depends on mother nature. Live and let live is afirm byword. And because the fishermen can barely make a living keeping to the fixed fishing quotas dictated by Moscow, the militia looks the other way when caviar is sold under the table – especially as they receive their share of the profit. The social stability begins to crumble, when an ambitious militiaman sees an opportunity to advance his career. Freedom-loving Stepan Kobyakov on attempting to evade a control-point, shoots his way out of the situation and disappears into the vastness of the taiga. This rekindles the old conflict in the village between those who would rather leave things as they are and muddle on through and those in whom the desire for freedom sitsdeeper. A group of hunting friends set off to search for Stepan in order to sort things out before Moscow sends a search-helicopter and reinforcements for the militia. But it is too late. And as the ambitious militiaman begins to teach the villagers a lesson, the situation gets completely out of hand –a dramatic conflict escalates in the snow-covered forests. The hunters become the hunted, humans become fair prey.
Taciturn men, harsh living conditions, breath-taking landscapes, gripping scenes of hunting and social conflict – authentically and thrillingly Viktor Remizov tells of life in the Siberian taiga and of the precarious value of freedom in an unfree society. It is a mercilessly human novel.
