Centr tyazhesti

The Center of Gravity is the debut novel by Alexei Polyarinov, a writer and translator for D. F. Wallace, a specialist in American postmodernism. It is a novel about topical - about the development of IT-technology and its unpredictable consequences, about contemporary art and the confrontation of man and the system. His characters grew up in the 90s. The book opens with a story written on behalf of the boy Petro: his first friendship and sympathy, problems at school, a detective story in search of a mysterious lake - an organic part of the narrative become magical tales of his mother. But then new narrators enter - his brother Yegor, their half-sister Marina, their friend Grek - each with their own, different point of view of events. Fragments of manuscripts and interviews intrude into the text. The story rapidly transforms from a family saga into an anti-utopia with elements of cyberpunk. Experimenting with the form and structure, creating a novel in a novel, in the final author brings all the lines together, and the mosaic canvas becomes a whole picture. This edition is supplemented by a foreword by the author.