Soldiers of the Absheron Regiment

Alexander Ilichevsky (b. 1970) is a Russian prose writer and poet. His tetralogy “Soldiers of the Absheron Regiment,” created over the span of a decade, comprises the novels “Matisse” (Russian Booker Prize), “The Persian” (Big Book Award), “The Mathematician,” and “The Anarchists.” In all four stories—despite their completely different plots—the protagonist shares a single mode of existence: a person, down on his luck to one degree or another, decides at a pivotal moment in life to change his fate. Having essentially been reduced to ash and ruin, he finds the strength to start a completely new and different life.