The Cicada Sheds Its Shiny Golden Skin

A family between Kyiv, Moscow and Berlin

Konstantin and Lada are siblings, divided by an unbridgeable silence. While Konstantin works in Moscow for a research institute responsible for preserving Lenin's body, Lada lives in Berlin as an artist. They have had no contact since the outbreak of the war. Lada cannot understand why Konstantin stayed in Moscow, and Konstantin has a task that is causing him headaches: his godfather has ordered him to steal rare biological specimens from the institute he works for.

Valeria Gordeev masterfully weaves the intimate story of a family between Berlin, Kyiv and Moscow into the grand, turbulent upheavals of our present day.

In Valeria Gordeev's novel the boundaries between real history, true science, and literary fiction blur in a fascinating way. The author practices a literary archaeology, taking real historical artifacts but embedding them into a surreal, fictional framework. The historical trauma of a nation is not only layered within the soil, but drags the life of every single individual in this novel down into the archaeological abyss.

"A truly great work" – ZEIT Podcast "Was liest du gerade?", Adam Soboczynski

"I have rarely read it done so brilliantly, how immediate political experiences are recast. That is truly great literature." – ZEIT Podcast "Was liest du gerade?", Iris Radisch