5 used & new from £5.00
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
The Zero Train
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Zero Train (Paperback)

by Yuri Buida (Author), Oliver Ready (Translator)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


1 new from £25.93 4 used from £5.00
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback (Tra) £6.99 £6.12 18 used & new from £2.46

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Slynx (New York Review Books Classics)

The Slynx (New York Review Books Classics)

by Tatyana Tolstaya
4.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £4.99
Escape Hatch / the Long Road ahead

Escape Hatch / the Long Road ahead

by Vladimir Makanin
£24.00
The Winter Queen

The Winter Queen

by Boris Akunin
3.6 out of 5 stars (30)  £4.99
Omon Ra

Omon Ra

by Viktor Pelevin
4.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £4.75
Moscow to the End of the Line (European Classics)

Moscow to the End of the Line (European Classics)

by Venedikt Erofeev
4.6 out of 5 stars (8)  £11.22
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 140 pages
  • Publisher: Dedalus Ltd (3 Jul 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 190351701X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1903517017
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.7 x 1.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 223,315 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Synopsis

First published in 1993 and shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize. It has enjoyed great success at Russia and in Europe. It has the epic intensity of Dostoievsky and a love affair as touching as in Doctor Zhivago. At times erotic, brutal, mysterious and moving it has a surreal quality that lingers in the mind long after the final pages have been read. The setting is a Soviet railway settlement Siding No9, an NKVD run line which serves the so-called Zero Train. The cargo of this sealed 100-wagon train is unknown to the employees of the siding as is the train's provenance; some suspect something sinister and become obsessed by the mystery. The attempted disentanglement of the mystery, which leads to madness and murder, is at the heart of the novel. The train itself forms the basis of a dense web of symbols examining the nature of life lived in the service of an ideal neither known or understood, thus allowing The Zero Train to be read as a study of the ordinary individual under Stalinism.

The novel begins with Don Domino, an old man watching a now almost deserted settlement unable to comprehend in his gathering insanity that the track is no longer there and that the Zero train has stopped passing through. The narrative continues as a series of flashbacks which draw the reader into his life and the mysteries of the line.

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(3)
(3)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good allegory about Stalinism, 21 Jun 2006
By Depressaholic (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Buida's `TZT' is a harrowing and moving novella concerning the effects of Stalinism on the lives of ordinary Russians. It follows the lives of a group of volunteers who man Station Number 9 of the track which the Zero Train runs along once a day. Nobody knows the purpose of the train, where it is going or what it is carrying, but they all know that they must keep it running smoothly. Initially they embrace their jobs with enthusiasm, willingly accepting their parts in the running of the train. As time goes on, they start to question their roles, and the point of the train. Disillusionment sets in, but they cannot stop the train. Where initially they had been willing to do their jobs, the sinister presence of an NKVD colonel is eventually required to keep them going. All of the inhabitants of Station Number 9 eventually succumb, in one way or another, to the oppression of the Zero Train.
`TZT' is obviously an allegory for Stalinism, which began with the will of the people and ended by bewildering and frightening them. The communist revolution thundered on both with or without the support of the Russian people, and eventually without their understanding, becoming an oppressive presence in their lives. The allegory is obvious, but not laboured, and the story actually becomes rather subtle in the telling. Despite being relatively short, `TZT' has some wonderfully fleshed out characters, especially Ivan Ardabyev, the closest thing the book has to a hero. The lives of all the characters at Station Number 9 are movingly recounted, so much so that the fates of all of them left a moving impression. That is no mean feat in a book of scarcely more than 100 pages, but Buida does it excellently. Although `TZT' is undoubtedly a political book, its strength lies in its characters, not in its politics. `TZT' is moving and enthralling, and a great example of modern Russian writing.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
8 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A vivid exploration of the legacy of Stalinism, 19 Feb 2002
By R. H. Chandler (London England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Few, if any, contemporary Russian writers have explored the legacy of Stalinism with Buida's emotional and imagainative intensity.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject













i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.