Monday starts on Saturday
By: Arkady and Boris Strugatsky ; translated by Andrew Bromfield ; illustrations by Yevgeniy Migunov
Contributors: Strugat︠s︡kiĭ, Boris, 1933-2012, author; Bromfield, Andrew, translator; Migunov, E., illustrator
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9781613739235
Subjects: Satire
Work titles: Ponedelʹnik nachinaetsi︠a︡ v subbotu
Description: Sasha, a young computer programmer from Leningrad, is driving through the forests of Northwest Russia to meet up with some friends for a nature vacation. He picks up a couple of local hitchhikers, who persuade him to come work with them at the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy, or NITWiT. The adventures Sasha has in the largely dysfunctional Institute involve all sorts of magical beings and devicesa wish-granting fish, a talking cat who can remember only the beginnings of stories, a sofa that translates fairy tales into reality, a motorcycle that can zoom into the imagined future, a hungry dog-size mosquito along with a variety of wizards (including Merlin), vampires, and petty bureaucrats. First published in Russia in 1964, Monday Starts on Saturday has become the most popular Strugatsky novel in the authors homeland. Like the works of Gogol and Kafka, it tackles the nature of institutionshere focusing on one devoted to discovering and perfecting human happiness. By turns wildly imaginative, hilarious, and disturbing, Monday Starts on Saturday is a comic masterpiece by two of the worlds greatest science fiction writers.
Notes: Translation from the Russian of: Ponedelʹnik nachinaetsi︠a︡ v subbotu.
Table of contents: title: Foreword by Adam Roberts; title: Story no. 1: The commotion over the sofa; title: Story no. 2: Vanity of vanities; title: Story no. 3: All kinds of commotion; title: Postscript and commentary; title: Afterword by Boris Strugatsky.