The Snail on the Slope

A neglected masterpiece by Russian science fiction greats Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, who thought of it as their “most complete and important work,” The Snail on the Slope disappeared almost immediately after it was first published in a small mass-market edition in the United States in 1980. In the meantime, however, it went through twenty-seven editions in fifteen other countries, making it one of the Strugatsky brothers’ most popular works worldwide, along with Roadside Picnic and Hard to Be a God. Now, in a stunning new translation, this tour de force is ready to be introduced to a new generation of American readers.

   The novel takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below. The other is the forest, a place of fear, weird creatures, primitive but garrulous people, and violence. Peretz, who works at the Administration, wants to visit the forest. Candide crashed in the forest years ago and wants to return to the Administration. Their journeys are surprising and bizarre, and readers are left to puzzle out the mysteries of these foreign environments. Brilliant, enigmatic, evocative, and revelatory, The Snail on the Slope is one of the greatest literary works to come out of Soviet Russia.