Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into satire here are some satire books from Russia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
A masterpiece of Russian prose, Lermontov's only novel was influential for many later 19th century authors, including Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov. Lermotov's hero, Pechorin, is a dangerous man, Byronic in his wasted gifts and his cynicism, and desperate for any kind of action that will stave off boredom. In five linked episodes, Lermontov builds up a portrait of a man caught in and expressing the sickness of his times.
The book sets out to discuss themes including free speech and cancel culture through the perspective of a non-Western immigrant. It particularly addresses why the West has a negative view of itself, and why that is self-destructive.
One of the themes of the book is the history of slavery and the way it is taught in American schools. By talking about the life of his great grandfather as a serf in the Russian Empire, the Soviet gulags, Barbary corsairs and slavery in African kingdoms Kisin pushes back against the notion that slavery was unique to the West and makes a case that slavery in Afri... continue
A satire about the Soviet space program finds Omon, who has dreamed of space flight all of his life, enrolled as a cosmonaut only to learn that his task will be piloting a supposedly unmanned lunar vehicle to the Moon and remaining there to die.