The Sacred Book of the Werewolf

[obyknven]

The best book on modern Russia.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/feb/1...uardianreview21

[Monte Carlo]

The fantasy is fuelled by passion, the humour by grief. For example, in a fine episode set in the frozen north, our fox discovers that the Russians get their oil by employing werewolves to invoke the spirit of a brindled cow - the cow who, in a folktale, helped poor little Khavroshka with her tasks and finally made her rich by dying and coming back as a tree with leaves of gold. If the werewolves can make the cow's skull weep, oil will spring from the ground, like a black tree with leaves of gold. This is a fine, rich metaphor for our increasingly insane exploitation of nature's generosity - and is it very much more improbable than what we "really" do nowadays in order to get oil?

 

Right, that's my holiday reading sorted then. Tom Clancy can wait.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Must've lost a lot in translation.

[Nightshape]

Mike...