★Awards: Winner of the Boris Strugatsky Bronze Snail Award! Shortlisted for the Big Book Award 2007! Short-listed for the Russian Booker Prize 2007! Shortlisted for the National Bestseller Prize!
★Rights sold: Italy, France, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Arabic!
★An unexpected solution to the trite dilemma of a common man up against to the big world – from Igor Sakhnovsky, prize-winning author of the Happy and the Mad. Written in the tradition of A Hero of Our Time and set in a puzzling modern world, this brilliant new novel is destined to become a Russian classic.

　　Alexander Bezukladnikov is trapped in total misery: he can hardly make ends meet; his beloved wife, sick and tired of poverty, dumps him for a prosperous ex- sportsman; and there is no chance for Bezukladnikov to get a better job because he is unable to keep up with the fastchanging social reality. There is nothing left to do but reach for an exposed electrical wire, hoping for a quick death.

　　Instead, he gets a new life. After being discharged from a hospital, his scorched palms still in bandages, Bezukladnikov soon realises that he possesses a unique gift: he knows everything. The only thing he has to do to get an answer to any question, be it “how many eggs are there in the fridge?” or “where can I get half a million dollars?”, is to ask himself a question. Bezukladnikov can now see anything that is happening, has happened or is yet to happen to anyone. He is supposed to be almighty – but instead, torpid and inoffensive, he becomes the prey of thugs, politicians, women, and international intelligence. Everybody pursues their own interests. Some want to use Bezukladnikov, others to kill him. But Bezukladnikov doesn’t play either their game or his own. Although comparisons with Superman are there for the taking, Bezukladnikov remains a Russian Forrest Gump, unintentionally betraying the hopes of the crowd. Paradoxically, all he uses his gift for is to protect himself from those who are after him.

　　Employing the plot of a blockbuster action thriller, the author masterfully creates a classic psychological story of an ordinary, touching, yet by no means pathetic person, who tries to assert his right to a private life.

Igor Sakhnovski

　　Igor Sakhnovski was born in 1958 in Orsk. He studied Russian language and literature at the State University of the Urals, then worked as a literary consultant and editor for a number of publishers and magazines. He is co-founder of the weekly newspaper Book Club. His book the Happy and the Mad, incorporating the novel the Vital Needs of the Dead and short stories, won the 2003 Russian Decameron prize. The Man Who Knew Everything was short-listed for the National Bestseller Prize, and although it was not awarded the first prize, it was the absolute winner according to readers’ polls. His novel the Vital Needs of the Dead has been translated into English, German, and French. Sakhnovski is also the author of two books of poems.