Publisher's Synopsis
This first-time novel was first published in Russian by Igor Efimov in 1997. Taking place both in the spiritual heart of the Rodina, the estate of the great author Pushkin, and the most foreign of cities, Chicago, the novel explores the heritage of language and culture, and deals with loss-the loss of an identity and a home. On the Background of the Provider evokes the great Russian writers and their battles with the tsar-authors write for personal freedom and truth and usually ending up paying for it, with their lives. The book concerns a fictional twentieth-century professor of philology. While he seems to share the education and intelligence of previous centuries, he lacks scruples. He does not love his wife, has sex with students, takes bribes, and plays politics. He does not fight the system-he uses it for his own benefit. Asenkova also deals with anti-Semitism. Can a Jew who has the literary and educational background of the great Russian writers be the leader of this ideological group?
