num_pages: 416
description: The central character and plot elements of the first novel, Tanya Grotter and the Magical Double Bass, closely resemble those of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, but are transposed into a Russian setting. Tanya Grotter has an unusual birthmark on her nose, magical powers, an upbringing by "Lopukhoid" (equivalent to Muggle) relatives after her parents were killed by an evil sorceress Chuma-del-Tort (the official translation of Voldemort name in Russian was 'Volan-de-Mort'), and goes to study at the Tibidokhs (Тибидохс) School for Behaviorally-Challenged Young Witches and Wizards. Tanya's foster-family, the Durnevs, live in an urban apartment block, and Tanya is forced to sleep not in a cupboard but in the apartment's loggia.[1] Yemets described the books as "a cultural reply" to the Potter series,[2] and they feature allusion to Russian culture and folklore[3] such as Baba Yaga,[1] rusalki, witches on Bald Mountain and the works of Pushkin (for instance, Tibidox is on the island of Buyan mentioned in Pushkin's The Tale of Tsar Saltan).[1] After the first book, the plots diverge from those of the Harry Potter series. For instance, in Tanya Grotter and the Golden Leech, Tanya finds herself pitted against "Hurry Pooper" (a thinly disguised Harry Potter) in the World Dragonball Championship. While trying to reach the ball, they crash, creating a new timeline in which Chuma-del-Tort has won, good and evil being reversed, and all the characters are speaking a Russian equivalent of Orwellian Newspeak. To restore normality, Tanya must defeat the Golden Leech. Mark Hooker, an independent academic at Indiana University's Russian and East European Institute, has interpreted the Golden Leech as capitalism, and the whole plot as an allegory of Yemets's real-world legal conflict over the copyright.
language: Russian
title: Таня Гроттер и магический контрабас
publisher: Eksmo