Kurkov worked on
Bikfordov mir[A World According to Bickford] (first published in 1993) for four years, from 1985 to 1989. This 400-page long book consists of several loosely interconnected storylines focusing on individuals and small groups of people travelling in search of other people in a country torn and devastated by a non-ending war. These consist of: a driver and his passengers in a lorry; two more passengers in an unpiloted dirigible; several Old Believers who have abandoned their hermitage; and a sailor who is tied by a safety fuse to a barge loaded with dynamite. The country they cross in different directions is Russia, but not as we know it. There is a textile industry centre where the female inhabitants vastly outnumber the male ones – reminiscent of the city of Ivanovo,…
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Citation: Rogatchevski, Andrei. "Bikfordov mir". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 October 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=31905, accessed 21 November 2024.]