Aleksei Fedyarov

ABOUT SFUMATO

"An evil and sad dystopia – and the saddest part is that it's probably true. The purity and power of its first part is in no way inferior to Orwell's despair."
VIKTOR SHENDEROVICH

"Conscious of human nature, Alexei Fedyarov demonstrates his insight to the highest degree ... It is hard not to believe his warning of the future, a future that lies ahead of the young and inexperienced as much as the old and wise. The brazen won’t escape, nor will the fearless; neither the destitute nor the wealthy; neither the stupid, nor the clever – the planners of our future have a solution ready for everyone."
ANNA BERSENEVA

"A successful dystopia is always a warning. It needs a very careful look at the present with a complete understanding of all psychological, historical and social mechanisms and trends, and then you have to pick up on these trends and persuade them convincingly. This is exactly what Fedyarov did ... This novel has frightened many readers and critics. And rightly so. Because it was written by a man who knows this world very well, and not just by hearsay."
CARINA COCKRELL

"Fedyarov describes with astonishing exactitude the inability of our current elite to maintain the country in its current size and configuration. From this perspective of irresponsibility, the possibility of external administration seems anything but fantastic."
ARKADI DUBNOV

"I was shaken, left reeling just like after reading Kafka."
VASILI GENERALOV

ABOUT MAN IN JAIL

"The book ... is less about prison than about Russia and the relationship between government and society."
RADIO LIBERTY

"As you read this book, it becomes very clear that we are in danger. It‘s very easy to be fooled. And our justice system will not disappoint us... It‘s an informative report on the inner workings of the prison system. And it seems somewhat well known. Which adds to the effect that our quiet, sated life is approaching an existence behind the barbed wire."
LIVELIB

"One reads in one breath, in one day, although sometimes a lump in the throat rises. Convoy, SIZO, SHIZO - these words rise in your memory, you push them away and tell yourself that it will certainly never happen to you, but then you remember the stories you read and understand that nothing in this life and in this country is certain. And when you get out of jail, that‘s it, you‘re a different person. Yes, someone may have been wai- ting for you, but you are still branded, society looks at you differently. This book is about the broken destinies of various men, supported by the warmth of their mothers and wives. It‘s not just about the harshness of the prison walls, but also about the management that exists in this system, if you can call it that, an algorithm of bullying and humiliation."
LIVELYB

"The book is not about ordinary convicts, but about former employees of the institutions. Who, like everyone else, are behind bars, without much advantage. Fedyarov writes in such a way that one feels both the fateful and the repulsive. Yes, a perpetrator must go to prison, nobody denies that. And if he is not a criminal? Or if he has committed a less serious crime, but was convicted according to a completely different paragraph? There are more than one such cases in the book."
LIVELIB

"The first book in a long time where I couldn‘t get away from reading. I cried and laughed. He writes sim- ply and interestingly about what seems absurd, about what is sad and very scary. In some places it reminds me of Ilf and Petrov, in others it reminds me of Victor Frankl, Bulgakov and Stephen King in «The Shawshank Redemption»."
LITRES

"Many people in today‘s Russia are threatened with imprisonment in camps. Those who are being impri- soned. And those who imprison. And it will always be like this until something changes in our consciousness. Only then will there be justice, elected and responsible authorities, honest police... But for now, these are just wishful thinking."
LITRES

"The book is incredibly valuable. In simple language, the author tells of the wonders and horrors of the Gulag in the 21st century. One unknowingly remembers the stories of Shalamov and thinks about how similar Fedyarov‘s stories are, and one involuntarily feels confusion and sadness: Why has almost nothing changed for so long, for so many dozens of years – neither in the organization of the prisons nor in human nature? Reading this book, I have experienced the whole range of emotions, and despite the incredible and some- times very terrible events that the author carefully documents, one still has the feeling that justice – will come, that light at the end of the tunnel - will certainly appear, that the human soul – is the most important thing we have, and is so easily in danger of being lost."
BOOKVOED

LONG REVIEW by Mikhail Shevelev

"War, hospital and prison were and are one of the main sources of Russian literature. With regard to modern wars, the late Vladimir Makanin said more than anyone else, in my opinion, with the novel «Asan». The hospital was described by Maxim Osipov in his notes «In the Homeland». And the prison now came to us in the form of a book by Alexey Fedyarov: «Man in Jail». The author is a former public prosecutor from Cheboksary who left the public service and went into business and was then sentenced under the Fraud Clause, after which all our entrepreneurs have been imprisoned and will still be going to jail. «Man in Jail» is a story about today‘s Russian camp, its inhabitants – prisoners and guards alike ¬– and their relations with the free world. The tradition of camp prose in Russian literature is rich – from Shalamov, Solzhenitsyn and Razgon to the cur- rent, youngest authors: Oleg Navalny, the notes of Mikhail Zakharin, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. In this tough competitive environment, Alexei Fedyarov‘s stories cut a very good figure. In many respects they even maintain the level of the honourable predecessors. In terms of love of life and the ability to find something cheerful about the most tragic circumstances, they are comparable to Dunsky and Frid‘s «Notes of a camp idiot», and through the attention to detail and accuracy of language, they are comparable to Dovlatov‘s «Zone». But there is one characteristic of «Man in Jail» that distinguishes it from the others – both historical and contem- porary examples. His stories are not only and not so much about prison, which once again threatens each of us at every corner. It is about the ability not to bend, to survive and to win – not against prison, but against something further above – the state. The author is once again in freedom and not only got back on his feet, but also began to help others who found themselves in a similar situation. Meanwhile he is a successful law- yer and head of the legal department of the charity foundation «Russia in Jail», one of the founders of the children‘s camp «Terra Nostra», where children whose parents are innocently imprisoned are admitted free of charge..."