Snail on the Slope by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (Russian, 1972)

Summary:
Pepper is a linguist who left home in order to arrive at the Directorate, the last frontier before entering the forest. His dream is to go into the forest in order to study it, but he needs to be issued a permit in order to do so. After much time, he has grown tired of all the tricks played on him to stop him from entering the forest, so he is ready to leave the Directorate once and for all. Again, against his wishes, he is forced to remain at the Directorate, not knowing why he is being retained (he is still perceived as an outsider and his branch of knowledge can be of no use there) nor what people are actually supposed to do. Pepper’s superior, Kim, books him an interview with the Director so Pepper can present his case. Still, the Director does not actually appear before Pepper, nobody seems to know who he is or what he looks like. When confronted with the option of becoming the new Director, Pepper accepts with hopes of making actual sense of things.
 On the other side of the forest, Kandid is on a daily mission to convince some villagers to take him to the City. However, the people of the village are the epitome of absurdity: at first they agree to take Kandid to the City but are quick to change their minds and are constantly rambling on unrelated topics. These villagers also treat Kandid as an outcast, to the extent that they have nicknamed him ‘Dummy’; according to them, Kandid rarely talks—in contrast with their never ending gibberish—and when he does, has a funny way of speaking. The truth is that Kandid belongs to the other side of the forest for he once was a Directorate employee, only that he had the misfortune of crashing his helicopter and was then rescued by the villagers. One day, by accident, Kandid’s wife Nava leads him outside the village into another one populated by women. In this village, sexual reproduction is in the past and men are not welcomed. The women of the other village steal Nava away from Kandid. Deciding that he has to warn his adoptive village of the dangers which the all-female village poses to them, Kandid returns only to be greeted by disbelief. As his mission has failed, Kandid resolves to stay in the village in order to protect its inhabitants.

Another summary:
This book is composed of two parts that happen simultaneously. 
 The first part involves the Directorate, which is in charge of studying the Forest. Pepper has gone to the Directorate to go into the forest because it has always been a dream of his but for some unknown reason, he was never given a permit and so he isn’t allowed to go in. He is now stuck inside the Directorate because, for some other reason, nobody will allow him to leave either. He has a small job working with a calculator that doesn’t seem to work quite right. In fact, many things in the Directorate do not seem to work quite right. People go around the place doing a lot of seemingly pointless jobs. While he is attempting to get a ride out of the Directorate his superior gets him a meeting with the Director to see about his situation and after a lot of pointless waiting, he isn’t presented with the Director at all. After the loss of a secret robot and a lot of blind searching for said robot, Pepper wakes up one day to find that the old Director is dead, and he now holds the position.
 The second part involves the happenings within the Forest itself. Dummy, previously known as Kandid, used to be a pilot for the directorate when he crashed in the Forest where he was taken in by the locals. He is given a place in their primitive society and a wife to take care of him, as he doesn't seem to be a very smart person in the eyes of the locals. He insistently wishes to get out of the Forest and is certain that the day after tomorrow will be the day he goes but he never actually leaves. In a certain occasion he is out with his wife attempting to get to the next town over when they decide to make the trip to the city. On their way they encounter a series of troubles which finally lead them to encountering a group of women who not only seem to know Kandid's wife but also aim to get rid of all men in general. They take his wife and leave him alive out of pity for her. Instead of getting out of the Forest as he had intended to, Kandid goes back to the village, set up on defending it from these women when the time comes.

Another summary:
The novel is divided in two parts, one is focused on the directorate and the other one on the life inside the forest with two different characters. 
 In the first part we meet Peretz, a linguist that is fascinated by the forest and dreams of exploring it. One day his dreams come true because he arrives to the base of the directorate wishing to have the chance to visit the forest, however every time they deny his wish claiming that tomorrow will be better, so instead he stays at the base and maxes social life. 
 The directorate has different subfields that are on charge of studying the forest since this is presumably poisonous because every person that had enter without protection does not return. While Peretz was visiting the general director, a high-tech robot escapes from the facilities, everyone runs after him but he is hiding in the forest. In an strange turn of events Peretz enters the bio-station located inside the forest where he meets a girl named Alevtina, who wakes him up and informs him that after the death of the General director, he is now the leader. 
 
 Now in the forest we meet Silent, a man that had an accident and ended up in the forest without memories and the natives rescued him. Without any memory he follows the advices of the natives, for example getting married to a girl named Nova. Together they used to have a happy life, however here and there Silent has gotten some memories back like him belonging to the world beyond the mountains and that in there he was happy and wishes to be back there instead of living in this village. Everyday he plans to go there but always changes his mind and plans to do it the next day since the forest is dangerous and does not want to go alone. One day his dream comes true because his wife asks him to accompany her to the next village, however they get lost. On the road they confront a group of thieves and later a group of women that threaten Silent and convince Nova that she belongs with them and not with Silent, that they are going to rule the world, that sex is something very archaic and that the men are no longer needed. Nova agrees and as a gift they allow Silent to live although they know it is a risk since they know that he comes from the mountains. Silent then decides to return to his village and warn all the people even tough they think he is speaking nonsense. Silent stays to protect his village.

World view: The world portrayed in the story is an hypothetical society which seems to be worse than the one the author lives in.
Future projections: Any hope or attempt for a better future is discarded. If there’s still a remaining trace, it ends up in a new kind of despair or loss of faith
Ideology:  It’s either the polarization of an ideology or an absurdist exaggeration of unfortunate or odd circumstances
Characters, plot and writing style: Black humor and satire are employed to expose, criticize or shame individuals or the society itself into improvement.
Classification: Non-dystopia