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In search of utopia: Chevengur, by Andrey Platonov, reviewed

After crossing the vast steppe, Sasha Dvanov reaches an isolated town where the communist ideal appears to have been achieved. But at what cost?

28 October 2023

9:00 AM

28 October 2023

9:00 AM

Chevengur Andrey Platonov, translated by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler

Harvill Secker, pp.576, 18.99

It has been a long journey into the light for the greatest Russian modernist most people have probably never heard of: Andrey Platonov. Born in 1899 in Voronezh, he started professional life as a mechanic and land-reclamation engineer, making him one of those rare writers with an affinity for both people and machines.

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