Year of Porn: A Novel

It’s not easy to be young in Yoshkar-Ola. Especially if you’re indifferent to hookah, read Thomas Wolfe in the original, are friends with a homeless artist, and sleep in your car. Mark graduated from university, had a falling out with his father, and left home. Now he works as a barista and translates porn films, and at night he fantasizes about his ex. Mark is ashamed of his Mari eye shape. Wherever and with whomever he is, he feels like a stranger. Exploring his roots, Mark learns the truth about the crimes of the Soviet era. They must not be repeated. The new summer will bring forest fires — twenty-year-olds will have to put them out. “The Year of Porn” is an example of the literature of the new generation. The masculine protagonists of the nineties have been replaced by new youth, who have questioned the narcissistic fantasies of the past. And this cannot but please. Alexey Polyarinov, writer, translator