Whatever the true identity of the author writing under the pseudonym of Y. M. Senkin, he has created a literary bomb. This small book is part hoax, part historical treatise, all told in explosive, witty prose that harks back to the Russian literary journeys of Nikolai Karamzin and Venedikt Yerofeyev. This description of a road trip through the Pskov Region is accompanied by phantasmagoric details of contemporary rural life, plunging the reader into a world inhabited by surreal, fantastical beings. But despite the abundant humour in Senkin’s tale, Ferdinand remains a work of social satire, as the author sees the insidious influence of Russia’s past, and the inability of Russia’s present to carve out its own space in history.

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