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Thirst
 
 

Thirst [Kindle Edition]

Andrei Gelasimov , Marian Schwartz
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Review

“Gelasimov’s narrator stumbles through the rubble of a life unlived, its often harsh language full of elegiac mourning. Gelasimov never wastes a word--Thirst brings forth an entirely new toughness, clarity, and elegance.” --Der Spiegel "Gelasimov’s spare prose and pointed dialogue make this tale of drinking, disfigurement, and self-discovery a memorable one." --Booklist "Each and every episode is very well executed, highly expressive, realistic and to the point." --Beauty is a Sleeping Cat "Andrei Gelasimov's vivid, concise, penetrating stories are... full of the anguish, longing and pain of the world. Yet also pierced by hope and insight. And humanity." --Russian Life

Product Description

Masterfully translated from the original Russian by award-winning translator Marian Schwartz, Thirst tells the story of 20-year-old Chechen War veteran Kostya. Maimed beyond recognition by a tank explosion, he spends weeks on end locked inside his apartment, his sole companions the vodka bottles spilling from the refrigerator. But soon Kostya’s comfortable if dysfunctional cocoon is torn open when he receives a visit from his army buddies who are mobilized to locate a missing comrade. Through this search for his missing friend, Kostya is able to find himself.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 230 KB
  • Print Length: 126 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1611090695
  • Publisher: AmazonCrossing (22 Nov 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0051R4NYG
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #14,285 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars a must-read 23 Dec 2011
By K. Brockbank VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This is a short book and I am not going to say anything about the story as I don't want to spoil it for you. Andrei Gelasimov is a very talented writer. There is not a single superfluous word in this book. Each word, phrase, sentence, paragraph is deliberate and serves a function. I tend to speed read but I could not with this one. It is a book to take slowly, savour and enjoy. It is simply a delightful and thought provoking book.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Nothing to drink but vodka ... 29 Nov 2011
By P. Millar VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Konstantin is a veteran of the Russian-Chechnyan war who now spends his days living in his apartment drinking vodka, interspersed with days when he works to make more money to buy the vodka. The book opens with him trying to find room in his fridge for the almost endless bottles of vodka he has acquired to sink himself, once more, into oblivion.

Through flashbacks to the war, his childhood and his love of drawing we are drawn into his world, one where he is trying to find his place in it and return to the outside. Each character thirsts for something more than they have, hence the title, and each one is thirsty for more vodka (as Russian culture and vodka seem inextricably linked).

This is a short simply written novel which involves you in the daily lives of a few Russians, each one trying to find a place in their small world and acceptance of themselves. Overall I enjoyed this book and would be interested in reading more by this author.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Abstract Soviet short-story 28 Nov 2011
By J. Morris TOP 100 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Thirst is the story of horrifically-scarred Konstantin. Living alone in his apartment, his only day-to-day contact is his neighbour Olga and her son Nikita - Olga uses Konstantin to move things around her apartment and scare Nikita into bed at night. Konstantin, bitter and confused by his life, drinks heavily, bottle after bottle of Vodka lines his fridge, but when the private that saved his life from a burning-APC goes missing, his equally-injured comrades decides to mount a search party, will they find Seryoga before it's too late?

Thirst runs in three timescales; Konstantin's childhood, his service (specifically the events leading up to and after the fire) and finally, his subsequent life. We see Konstantin as a child being taught to draw by a great alcoholic artist who is permanently thirsty. We learn the events that have misshapen him (figuratively & literally) and consequently the bonds between his brothers-in-arms that still live in the present as we search for Seryoga. All of the ex-soldiers are badly wounded and bitter alcoholics, but Konstantin's rediscovery of his talent for drawing allows him to paint them as if they were whole. He literally fills in what is missing today, whether it's the children people never had, the limbs they've lost or the wife that couldn't bear to look at the scars.

All in all, very short - 113 pages of dialogue-based paragraphs - but interestingly concise and conveys a lot with very little. Truly ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations, but worth a look if you enjoy Russian literature.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Vodka - the water of life?
It has taken me a long time to write this review. Not because the book is a slow read - I finished it in an evening - but because every time I started to write, the detail of a... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Alexa
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary
Creative writing at its best. An ultimately inspiring tale of a damaged being finding his self respect and future direction in the unlikely setting of modern Russia. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mike France
4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing
Found this short novel intriguing.

Kostoya is a man with not a to live for. A survivor of the war, he spends his days drinking vodka until some comrades of his come... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Patrick Duffy
4.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of a war veteran
This short novel is a first-person portrait of a veteran of Russia's Chechen war, whose face is disfigured as a result of his injuries and who is deeply disconnected from his... Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. Pawley
3.0 out of 5 stars Not much happens, but it doesn't happen *really well*
AmazonCrossing is Amazon's new imprint for foreign language books translated into English. Originally just for Kindle books, they now also publish on paper. Read more
Published 15 months ago by D. R. Cantrell
3.0 out of 5 stars A brief glimpse into Russian literature
This little novella is my first foray into the genre of Russian literature, and did not disappoint.

The plot centres around Kostoya, a Russian soldier who returned from... Read more
Published 16 months ago by C. Moorby
4.0 out of 5 stars Vodka is the water of life?
Konstantin is unable to find room in his fridge for all his vodka! He lines the bottle up on shelves, in the sink and on the floor. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Freckles
4.0 out of 5 stars "All the Vodka wouldn't fit in the Fridge"
Andrei Gelasimov has been feted in Russia and is both commercially and critically acclaimed. This novella is an attempt by Amazon Crossing to bring his work to the attention of the... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Tommy D
1.0 out of 5 stars Tiresome Drunkalogue
Sounds cruel, doesn't it? There's no doubt at all of the suffering of wounded soldiers, made worse by the lack of understanding shown by the society they were supposedly defending... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Donald Lush
2.0 out of 5 stars Vodka Equals Water
The child of this book is told not to cry by the nurse. 'Soldiers don't cry', she scolds him 'even when they get hurt. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Richard M. Seel
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Waiting means experiencing gratitude. Simply rejoicing that you have something to wait for. You look out the window and think, ‘Thank you, Lord. And thank you, everyone else. To the pigeon for flying past. To the dog for running by.’ &quote;
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Jealousy is the kind of thing you just can’t beat. Ever. No matter how hard you try. There are strong people who can beat anything—enemies, friends, loneliness. But jealousy is a whole different thing. You just have to go and cut out your heart. Because that’s where it lives. Otherwise, every movement you make is going to be aimed at you. It’s like drowning in quicksand. The harder you try to get out, the faster you sink into the quagmire. &quote;
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