Heritage

The future has come and gone, the nuclear war is almost forgotten, not everyone survived, and those who did will never be the same. A peaceful treaty did not bring peace: violence has become the norm and a necessity, tolerance towards it is more contagious than the Bolivian virus. In the final part of the trilogy about Dr. Garin, Vladimir Sorokin depicts the next, even more distant stage of post-apocalyptic decay. Paradoxically, its reality seems much more recognizable. However, we do not immediately recognize the main character, but he still remains an example of dignity and humanity, as befits a doctor. The train, an unchanging symbol connecting Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet literature, travels from east to west. Its fuel is people, not in a metaphorical sense, but quite literally, and they have nowhere else to run. But the wonderful doctor and his unusual successors give hope that the mad world has not only an end, but also a happier continuation.