Utterly unique, and magnificent. Volodine's just vaulting up my list of favorite writers, and this just might be his best so far. (Along with [b:We Monks and Soldiers|13594210|We Monks and Soldiers|Lutz Bassmann|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352204692s/13594210.jpg|19182428].) I only waited to read it so long because the title seems uninspiring. (Shallow, I know.) But this is no mere metaliterary exercise (as good as those can be). Each of these slightly interconnected stories is page-by-page beautiful yet land, in the end, with powerful weight. Volodine is digging into a fresh vein of literary work, here.

I want to be a post-exoticist writer too.