A fine copy of the first edition - made to smuggle into the USSR. Platonov's Chevengur tells of a disastrous attempt to bring about Communism in a small town in central Russia. Originally written in the late 1920s, it was not published in the Soviet Union until 1988. Platonov's extraordinary use of words, reflecting both his own inventiveness and the corruption of linguistic meaning in the Soviet Union, unsettles the reader, layering the text with multiple meanings. This, coupled with Platonov's authenticity of voice gives a spiritual profundity to the novel that stretches far beyond its immediate plot lines.

For so many years lost amidst the onslaught of official literature, Platonov's reputation has grown exponentially since the fall of the Soviet Union. Once called 'scum' by Stalin, he has since been described by the translator Robert Chandler as the greatest Russian prose stylist of the twentieth century.

First edition, 8vo; 376pp.; in original publisher's printed wrappers, slight creasing to spine otherwise a fine copy.