Anatoly Kurchatkin’s novel, set in Russia and Thailand, ranges in time from the Brezhnev years of political stagnation, when Soviet values seemed set to endure for eternity, through Gorbachev’s Perestroika and the following tumultuous and disorientating decades. Under the surface, ancient currents are influencing the destinies of mathematician Rad, art gallery owner Jenny, entrepreneur (and spy?) Dron, American investor Chris, redundant Soviet diplomat Yelena and Thai playboy Tony in a rapidly globalizing world of laptop computers, mobile phones, credit cards and international finance. The fourteenth-century battle in which the Prince of Muscovy, inspired by St Sergius of Radonezh, defeated the Golden Horde of the Mongol Empire foreshadows a modern struggle for the soul of Russia.

Tsunami was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize and the Russo-Italian Moscow-Penne Prize.

Translated by Arch Tait.

Born in 1944 in Sverdlovsk, Anatoly Kurchatkin graduated from the Moscow Literary Institute in 1972. Anatoly Kurchatkin’s eagle eye has chronicled the changes in Russian society since the 1970s. He has won numerous prizes over the years, and his novels have been dramatized by the Moscow Art Theatre and turned into feature films. His other works include: Notes of an Extremist (1990), The Joy of Death (2000), The Happiness of Benjamin L. (2002), The Sun was Shining (2004). One of the most European of contemporary Russian writers, his work has been translated into ten languages.

Critics describe him as ‘a student of human behaviour with a firm belief in basic principles of human decency.’ A master of dialogue, his writing has the resonance of parable.