| Serebryanny Asholotl |
Silver Axolotl. Collection of short stories. Stroki. Moscow 2023. 260 pages. |
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Foreign rights:
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Spain/ Impedimenta |
This collection of 8 stories where reality intertwines with mysticism and where the boundaries of good and evil blur, includes both previously unpublished and new stories from the queen of Russian horror. For each text, Starobinets provides two perspectives, and in both – reality and fantasy – her characters find themselves in situations that test their and our humanity.
These are crazy stories about the backside of reality and about the real world, which is much worse than the "other" world.
Axolotl - in Aztec mythology, a demon with a dog's head, the patron saint of freaks and monsters, a guide to the world of the dead. According to one of the ancient legends, at the beginning of time, Axolotl copulated with the ice salamander, who knew how to be in fire without getting burned, as well as with the lionfish, who knew how to set the sea on fire. And the three gave birth to a child who became immortal, for when he dies he does not die but turns into something else. One day this child will feel hunger and turn into one that devours the entire world - and after a series of epidemics and wars, the end of times will come.
Very simple everyday situations or others that seem most familiar to us, develop into small or very large horror scenarios: a disabled schoolmate, a vow of loyalty and betrayal. An epidemic, lock down, marital problems, infidelity. A pop star whose career is on the decline because his wife, who was the real creative force behind his songs, committed suicide. Shimon is bullied at school because his father went to America as a scientist, and then Shimon suddenly makes a discovery: Axolotl lives in the dungeons of Peterhof – a legendary reptile that Shimon wants to defeat in order to rescue Russia's honor. A girl finds out that it wasn't her grandfather who impregnated her grandmother, but a ghost.
