Y. Senkin-Tolsty managed to create a detonating mixture indeed: this small book is a combination of a witty hoax, a historical treatise, and explosive, emphatic prose built upon the whole of the tradition of world literary journeys. The book compiles the features of “A Sentimental Journey” by Laurence Stern and satirical grotesque of “Gulliver’s Travel” by Jonathan Swift. It also refers to classical Russian texts such as Karamzin’s “Letters of the Russian Traveller” and a cult poem “Moscow — Petushki” by Venedikt Yerofeyev.

The description of an automobile trip from glamorous European-like St. Petersburg to the rural heart of Russia — the Pskov Region — reveals a primordial world inhabited by truly mythological beings. Each settlement passed by the author on his way has its own thrilling story. The world of Russian village invented by Senkin-Tolsty is populated by descendants of Alexander Pushkin and relatives of the Loch Ness monster; here the dragons can be met and the Holy Grail with the never ending source of vodka can be found. Senkin-Tolsty’s tale transforms the discrepancies of the contemporary Russian life into a harsh satire with a philosophical meaning. The author has a sharp eye of a historian; in the macabre rural humdrum he discerns a lasting influence of past epochs which in Russia never quite belong to the past.

The exemplar of high-quality prose, A New Sentimental Journey involves a reader into exploring not only the relativity of time but also of space, creating a dramatic alternative version of modern universe.