Vera Bogdanova is overwhelmed with fears and concerns, and she is both compassionate and resentful to a degree that the reader has no chance to remain distant and reserved about the story she tells. Pavel Zhang truly amazes with its natural emotional force and with the beauty and charm of its carefully crafted structure.
——meduza.io

This is a debut novel that feels like some sort of minor literary miracle.
——Lizok’s Bookshelf

The story of Pavel Zhang is a story of the long-term impact and consequences of trauma that takes root and flourishes inside, never easing its grip as it continues to attract new problems, new violence, and endless new evils.
——literaturno.com

For Bogdanova, dystopia is a setting for heated dispute about a traumatic experience, whether we inflict the trauma, or a traumatic experience transforms us, all as mythological monsters inhabit our hearts.
——Esquire

Pavel Zhang is rightfully a central figure of the novel — he is a hero of our time, torn between feelings and career, abused yet unbroken and
uncomplaining. He has pulled himself from the bottom of the river by his own hair and does not want to go back, especially since he still feels the taste of sludge in his mouth.
——dtf.ru

Vera Bogdanova has touched numerous sore spots that aren’t pleasant to discuss but need to be discussed. Violence against the individual, social violence, unfounded hatred, the defeated dreams of a young
generation. Despite its dystopian nature and its dark, grim reality, the novel is not devoid of hope. There’s hope, yet one has to be persistent in their search, fighting against the river beasts of sorts, and the most vile of all — the human being.
——prochtenie.org

★Shortlisted for the National Bestseller Award 2021
★Nominated for the New Literature Award NOS 2021
★Longlisted for the Big Book Award, Yasnaya Polyana 2021
★Finalist of the Litsei Literature Award for Young Writers 2020

2049, Moscow. After a decade of sanctions and economic crises, Russia becomes part of the Asian Union, headed by Beijing. Everything related to China is considered prestigious, while Russia is just a territory of natural resources and manpower. The Asian Union is a high-tech surveillance state, and every citizen in China is implanted with a chip that controls health, finance and every aspects of daily routines. In opposition to the massive mandatory introduction of chips there
acts a radical activist group, CounterNet. Software for the chips is developed by the Russian branch of a Chinese IT corporation, where the protagonist of the novel, Pavel Zhang, is a young specialist with a promising future.

Two things poison Pavel Zhang’s life in the spring of 2049. First, his dream job — as a curator for the chip software development project — goes to his competitor. This job was more than just a step up on Pavel’s career ladder: it now feels as if Beijing itself is falling out of reach. Moreover, when he’s volunteering at an orphanage near Moscow, Pavel runs across Krasnov — a man who raped him in childhood.

Pavel was first raped when he was 13 and lived in an orphanage. The sexual abuse, condoned by the orphanage authorities, was regular, and Pavel happened to be the only child to fight back: he collected evidence and sent it to both the police and bloggers. Pavel discovers that Krasnov escaped punishment thanks to family connections and that he still has access to children. Knowing that Krasnov won’t repent or stop abusing children, Pavel confronts and murders Krasnov by drowning him in a pond.

Against odds, Pavel succeeds in his long-awaited promotion to the Chinese head office. In Beijing, however, the Chinese do not regard Pavel as one of them, and China doesn’t quite match up to his dreams. Disillusioned, Pavel approaches the CounterNet. He hacks the Diyu data to reveal a shocking truth about the authorities’ true intentions. The state will not only control life of its citizens but also choose to end it if they wish. Pavel’s father, a leader of the CounterNet organization, was the first subject of this experiment: he died after chip implementation, after many years in prison. His death in the file shows up as a death from natural causes, but now Pavel knows better.

He seeks revenge for his ruined childhood, the abuse he suffered in the orphanage, for the family he failed, and his defeated dreams. He will fight for the freedom and the choice of every person — something he did not have — and nothing will stop him in his final act, not even death.

Vera Bogdanova has written a masterly crafted text that challenges its readers with acute social issues (sexual abuse, childhood trauma and its violent consequences, the government’s digital control, Internet addiction, and objectification of woman) and at the same time compels the reader to sympathize with the dramas, twists, and challenges in the characters’ lives. This rich, frank, and emotional text is at once deft and spacious, filled with air, sounds of lively, brisk, true-to-life dialogues, the novel’s transient fine colors, shifting landscapes, vivid realistic details… all set against the backdrop of the flow of an ever-changing river. The result is a spectacular debut that defies genres and expectations and is written in a clear voice that makes Bogdanova a woman to watch in contemporary Russian fiction.

Vera Bogdanova (1986) was born in Moscow. She graduated from Moscow Region State University as a professional translator from the English language and attended language school in New York. In 2019 she completed a two-year creative writing course run by Olga Slavnikova. Bogdanova’s short stories were published in anthologies, literary journals and platforms. She is also the author of sci-fi novels published under the literary pen-name Vera Ogneva, which received nominations for literary awards (New Horizons and Interpresscon in 2017). Her first novel, published under her real name, Pavel Zhang and Other River Beasts, was a finalist of the Litsei Literature Award for Young Writers, entered a short list for the National Bestseller Prize, and was in the run for the Big Book Award, Yasnaya Polyana Award and New Literature Prize (NOS). Bogdanova runs a blog on translated fiction from the States and the United Kingdom, @wordsnletters. Her
novel The Season of Poisoned Fruits received a warm welcome from critics and struck a chord with readers, coming out in the second printing within two months since publication.