Overview

The terrifying, lengthening list of Russia's use of lethal poisons against its critics has inspired acclaimed author Sergei Lebedev's latest novel. With uncanny timing, he examines how and why Russia and the Soviet Union have developed horrendous neurotoxins. At its center is a ruthless chemist named Professor Kalitin, obsessed with developing an absolutely deadly, undetectable, and untraceable poison for which there is no antidote. But Kalitin becomes consumed by guilt over countless deaths from his Faustian pact to create the ultimate venom. When the Soviet Union collapses, the chemist defects and is given a new identity in Western Europe. After another Russian is murdered with Kalitin's poison, his cover is blown, and he is drawn into an investigation of the death by Western agents. Two special-forces killers are sent to silence him―using his own undetectable poison. In this fast-paced, genre-bending tale, Lebedev weaves suspenseful, stunningly beautiful prose exploring the historical trajectories of evil. From Nazi labs, Stalinist plots, and the Chechen Wars to present-day Russia, Lebedev probes the ethical responsibilities of scientists supplying modern tyrants and autocrats with ever newer instruments of retribution, destruction, and control.

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9781665105484

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Reviews

[An] excellent translation...There is an elegance, and urgency, to the narrative's slow unfolding of secrets and memories. Untraceable invites us to look at what has been hidden in plain sight. -- Los Angeles Review of Books [A] le Carre-ish plot...Lebedev's fiction excavates what lies beneath: the inner lives of earlier generations, buried under layers of official myth and self-deceit. -- The Guardian (London) A taut spy thriller with Gothic flourishes...[and] insight into the psychological effects of poisoning, literal and metaphorical. -- The Economist (London) A thriller dipped in poison...[that] shares some of le Carre's fascination with secret worlds and the nature of evil. -- New York Times Enthralling and exquisite, by one of modern Russia's finest writers. -- Philippe Sands, author of East West Street Intense...intelligent and stunning, Untraceable is a character-driven thriller about the price of control. -- Foreword Reviews (starred review) Lebedev has perceived what was invisible to most Soviet and post-Soviet writers. -- Vladimir Sorokin, author of The Blizzard One of Russia's most interesting young novelists takes on Putin, poison, and power in...a fascinating window on modern Russia. -- Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Probing the...horrors that science casually inflicts on people, animals, and the environment...A darkly absorbing intellectual thriller. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Spellbinding insight into a secret world that we forget at our peril, a world of assassins, spies, patriots, and poison masters whose shockingly evil decisions are made in their unwavering belief of serving a greater good. -- Rory MacLean, author of Pravda Ha Ha The absence of evidence makes accounts from the living, such as this courageous novel, all the more significant. -- Wall Street Journal The darkest impulses of science and power cross paths with human error and plots gone awry in Sergei Lebedev's incisive and all-too-plausible Russian novel. -- Will Englund, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Moscow correspondent for the Washington Post

"""[An] excellent translation...There is an elegance, and urgency, to the narrative's slow unfolding of secrets and memories. Untraceable invites us to look at what has been hidden in plain sight."" -- ""Los Angeles Review of Books"" ""[A] le Carr�-ish plot...Lebedev's fiction excavates what lies beneath: the inner lives of earlier generations, buried under layers of official myth and self-deceit."" -- ""The Guardian (London)"" ""A taut spy thriller with Gothic flourishes...[and] insight into the psychological effects of poisoning, literal and metaphorical."" -- ""The Economist (London)"" ""A thriller dipped in poison...[that] shares some of le Carr�'s fascination with secret worlds and the nature of evil."" -- ""New York Times"" ""Enthralling and exquisite, by one of modern Russia's finest writers."" -- ""Philippe Sands, author of East West Street"" ""Intense...intelligent and stunning, Untraceable is a character-driven thriller about the price of control."" -- ""Foreword Reviews (starred review)"" ""Lebedev has perceived what was invisible to most Soviet and post-Soviet writers."" -- ""Vladimir Sorokin, author of The Blizzard"" ""One of Russia's most interesting young novelists takes on Putin, poison, and power in...a fascinating window on modern Russia."" -- ""Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author"" ""Probing the...horrors that science casually inflicts on people, animals, and the environment...A darkly absorbing intellectual thriller."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" ""Spellbinding insight into a secret world that we forget at our peril, a world of assassins, spies, patriots, and poison masters whose shockingly evil decisions are made in their unwavering belief of serving a greater good."" -- ""Rory MacLean, author of Pravda Ha Ha"" ""The absence of evidence makes accounts from the living, such as this courageous novel, all the more significant."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""The darkest impulses of science and power cross paths with human error and plots gone awry in Sergei Lebedev's incisive and all-too-plausible Russian novel."" -- ""Will Englund, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Moscow correspondent for the Washington Post """

Author Information

Sergei Lebedev has been called the most important younger Russian author writing today. His novels have been translated into many languages and three of his works--Oblivion, The Year of the Comet, and The Goose Fritz--have been published in English to great acclaim by New Vessel Press. Saul Reichlin is a narrator, actor, producer, and director. He has lent his voice to more than fifty television documentaries. Antonina W. Bouis is one of the leading translators of Russian literature working today. She has translated more than eighty works from authors such as Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Mikhail Bulgakov, Andrei Sakharov, Sergei Dovlatov, and Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. She was born in West Germany and educated in the United States, where she earned degrees from Barnard College and Columbia University. Bouis, previously executive director of the Soros Foundation in the former USSR, now lives in New York City.

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