Russia
Foreign Book
Reviews

Released in 1998, Azazel (The Winter Queen) became the first novel in Boris Akunin’s engaging detective series. Boris Akunin is a pseudonym adopted by Grigory Chkhartishvili, a contemporary Russian writer, translator, and expert on Japan. Every book in the series explores a different type of detective genre: spy mystery, political intrigue, hired assassins, etc. This makes it impossible for the reader to get bored or even anticipate upcoming plot turns. Every time Akunin gives us an answer, he poses another – more disturbing – question (which is not true of other detective stories). Akunin is a brilliant storyteller. He hooks readers from the start and never lets go. By the end of Azazel, we are left with the feeling that nearly every character is not who we imagined at the beginning.

"Erast Fandorin is a handsome, romantic, and idealistic young man, with quick wits, a deductive mindset, good manners, and a yearning for perfection."

Azazel is set in 1876 and written like an internal monologue or thought. This stylization is perfect and reminds us of Dostoevsky’s writing. Based on interviews with the author, it would be safe to assume that such a resemblance was deliberate. While the language feels natural and appropriate for native speakers, it regularly presents foreign readers with new challenges. For instance, there are the bulky and complicated names for positions and ranks in the military, the government, and the court, first introduced by Peter the Great in 1722. Terms like “титулярный советник/titulyarniy sovetnik” (Titular Councilor), “обер-полицеймейстер/ober-politseymeyster” (Head of the Police), “коллежский регистратор/kollezhskiy registrator” (Collegiate Registrar), and “поручик/poroochik” (Lieutenant) evoke certain associations in Russian minds, but have to be looked up in a dictionary by most foreign readers. The same is true for everyday objects, such as “духовная/dukhovnaya” (testament, will), “сюртук/s’urtook” (frock coat), and others.

In Azazel, we meet 20-year-old Erast Petrovich Fandorin at the start of his career and adulthood (becoming accustomed to Russian middle names is unavoidable with this book series). He is a handsome, romantic, and idealistic young man, with quick wits, a deductive mindset, good manners, and a yearning for perfection. He pays a bit too much attention to his own appearance, performs respiratory gymnastics, and wears a corset for better posture. He accidently gets involved in a plot for world domination, and it turns out that he has a knack for crime-solving, as he does his best to stay alive trying to unravel the mystery.

"By the end of Azazel, we are left with the feeling that nearly every character is not who we imagined at the beginning."

Although the predominance of action is obvious in the novel, the author manages to raise some serious issues, one of which is every child’s potential for greatness. Thus, Lady Ester (as, most certainly, Akunin himself) believes each human being to be born with a special talent. The tragedy is that some talents are useless in the present stage of human evolution, because they were either relevant a long time ago (like the ability to sense underground water) or will be in a distant future.

Each chapter of the book has a title, which summaries the content of the chapter in witty and captivating ways without giving away too much. Azazel is a high-standard detective novel for intelligent readers. Owing to the level of detail and absolute historical accuracy, Akunin’s writing not only successfully entertains, but also has an educational quality presented in an unobtrusive manner.