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Nothing’s Lost

Nothing’s Lost

Rusija

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Alexander Kabakov

The summer of 1957 was mind-blowing. Final school exams began. He was aiming for a Silver Medal: it was suggested that he should re-take geography, then he would even be in the running for a Gold Medal. He turned his back on all the advantages that could bring, managing the silver one after all and also a top grade as a youth player in basketball: he even got to play in Moscow’s youth championships. He didn’t give a moment’s thought to any re-takes. It was a good thing that he at least didn’t end up with any more B grades in the exams. There was little time for thinking about studies: Uncle Petya was dying…

Saltykov, the hero of Alexander Kabakov’s novel Nothing’s Lost, is a mature man thinking back over his long life – from his childhood under Stalin spent in a small town and his youth as a trend-setter in Moscow during the Thaw till the present day in a capital where sweet freedom went hand in hand with disappointment.

This novel is an attempt to bring alive the Soviet past in the late 20^th century and the transition to the democratic era through a life-story of an individual. It was awarded the critics’ prize, the top “Apollon Grigoriev Award” and the national literary award, the “Big Book Prize”.

Part I covers Saltykov’s childhood, life at a military base, his feeling of not belonging, his young desires and search for love and the like-minded…

Part II shows us Saltykov sowing his wild oats, living it up and feeling that there are no limits for a strong healthy body…

Part III is devoted to the hero’s life in the present: he works in a large company headed by the younger generation who have adapted to the 21^st century Russia. Saltykov and those like him are a dying breed of dinosaurs…

Alexander Kabakov is a writer of fiction, essays, film-scripts and plays. He graduated from the Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty of Dnepropetrovsk University. After serving in the army, Kabakov worked as an engineer in a missile factory. Later he was a professional journalist and editor. He is currently editor-in-chief of the charitable foundation “Rusfond”. In 1975 Alexander Kabakov began publishing humorous short stories and he made his name with a short dystopian novel entitled No Return: it has been translated and published in almost all European countries, in the United States and Japan. Since then, Kabakov has written and published numerous novels and short stories, articles and essays. His play Signs ran over several seasons. For the cycle of stories Fairy-tales from Moscow he was acclaimed “Prose-writer of the Year” and was short-listed for the “Big Book Prize” and the “Bunin Prize”. His novel Diary of the Unknown – was hailed as “Prose Work of the Year”. He was also awarded the “Russian Federation Government Prize”.