{"product_id":"the-underground-9781632060440","title":"The Underground","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed one of \"the best Russian novels of the 21st Century,\" \u003ci\u003eThe Underground\u003c\/i\u003e is the unforgettable story of an abandoned mixed-race boy navigating the wondrous and terrifying city of Moscow before the Soviet Union's collapse.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I am Moscow's underground son, the result of one too many nights on the town.\" So begins the story of Mbobo, the precocious 12-year-old narrator of this captivating novel by exiled Uzbek author and BBC journalist Hamid Ismailov. Born to a Siberian woman and an African athlete who came to compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Mbobo must navigate the complexities of being a fatherless, mixed-raced boy in the shaky terrain of the Soviet Union before its collapse. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith echoes of Ralph Ellison's \u003ci\u003eInvisible Man\u003c\/i\u003e and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, Ismailov's novel tackles head-on the problems of race and the relationship between the individual and society in a thoroughly modern context. While paying homage to great Russian authors of the past--Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Gorky, Nabokov, and Pushkin--Ismailov emerges as a master of a new kind of Russian writing that revels in the sordid reality and diversity of the country today. Named one of \"the best Russian novels of the 21st Century (\u003ci\u003eContinent Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eThe Underground\u003c\/i\u003e is a dizzying and moving tour of the Soviet capital, on the surface and beneath, before its colossal fall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Restless Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/22\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781632060440\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.90d","brand":"Hamid Ismailov","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40190084448437,"sku":"9781632060440","price":14.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_d8ad2e77-9350-4a70-9182-a92f3bcdf86b.jpg?v=1623128529","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-underground-9781632060440","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}