Cities and Years

The cities are Berlin and Moscow, the years those of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, and the theme enduring: what role should the intelligentsia play in the inevitable revolution looming over society? Konstantin Fedin's intense exploration of war and its aftermath focuses on Andrei Startsov, an intellectual who must wrestle with his ambivalence toward the convulsions in his homeland and with his love for the rebellious and fiercely independent Marie. A respectful confrontation with the giants of nineteenth-century Russian literature--Tolstoy above all--and an experiment in narrative technique reminiscent of Joyce or Dos Passos, Cities and Years reflects the sensibility of the modernist Serapion Brotherhood to which Fedin belonged.