Dmitry Lipskerov - The protagonist awakens one morning bereft of his tool; and the tool, which re-appears, sentient and in a small village far away, without his man. Thus begins a novel both funny and absurd

Dmitry Lipskerov, The Tool & the Butterflies, 

Trans. by Reilly Costigan-Humes and Isaac 

Wheeler, Deep Vellum Publishing, 2021.

Dmitry Lipskerov, an award-winning Russian writer compared throughout his career to Mikhail Bulgakov and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, focuses his unbridled imagination on the story of wealthy, satisfied Mr. Iratov, whose virile world is flipped upside-down. Taking a page from Gogol’s satirical story “The Nose,” wherein the protagonist loses his aforementioned facial feature, Lipskerov's novel transposes such a loss onto a more delicate organ. The protagonist awakens one morning bereft of his tool; and the tool, which re-appears, sentient and in a small village far away, without his man. Thus begins a novel both funny and absurd, in which characters come together across disparate social strata and with differing goals to weave the fate of a universe familiar yet fantastical, a perfect satire of the madness of Russian society today. The Tool and the Butterflies, Lipskerov's eagerly anticipated English language debut, is not just a darkly comedic exploration of post-Soviet attitudes towards gender and sexuality, but also a historically and socially grounded narrative rich in naturalistic dialogue and everyday detail, and an engaging story of family and what matters most in life, in the grandest tradition of Russian literature. 

"Magic, humor, suspense, these are the ingredients of this demonic bouillabaisse that Dmitri Lipskerov has concocted according to the best recipes of magical realism." – Le Courrier de Russie

"An enthralling mix of post-Soviet reality, magical realism and surrealism makes reading this novel an experience like meandering through the Minotaur’s labyrinth, but instead of one monster, there are many, lurking around every corner. The elusive characters in this novel find themselves in totally absurd situations that never quite fall perfectly into context but also contribute to the development of the broader storyline." – sub-cult.ru

"Dmitry Lipskerov’s novel is rich with literary allusions, furnished with a bold plot, topical and philosophical in equal measure – in a word, the novel has everything necessary to become a smart bestseller. Lipskerov is a writer with a rampant imagination. His protagonist gets into a sticky and totally Gogolesque, or rather, Kafkaesque situation." – delfi.lv

"The author succeeds in drawing readers into a whirlpool of modernized mishaps straight out of Hoffmann and Gogol. Doppelgangers are a recurring theme. There is an angelic maiden. There is a good portion of moralité. And last but not least there are the cutlets in an elite gourmet deli that have sat out just a little too long, an homage to Bulgakov." – Kultura

"Lipskerov is one of those writers who are artists rather than thinkers. His novels are often cited and retold but they cannot be fully comprehended. Just like one cannot explain the abstract expressionism of Pollok or Petrov-Vodkin’s still lives. A pure joy for readers." – readrate.com

"The author’s snappy language lets the reader’s imagination run wild. Not for nothing was this novel called the most shocking of the year." – neva-events.ru

"A soap opera with a Gogolesque beginning and a Biblical finale." – gorky.media

So let’s deal with the title first which mystified me as I am sure it did you. The Russian title translates literally as About It and About the Butterflies. The English word tool, used instead, clearly refers to the penis as, presumably, the it of the Russian title does. (Just to clarify, the normal Russian slang for penis is хуй or хер .) This is, as you will see, highly relevant. The Russian word бабочка of the title does indeed mean butterfly but it is also slang for prostitute. However, in this book the old woman Ksenia, great-grandmother of Alice (both her mother and grandmother are dead) uses it to mean vagina. No, this book is not pornographic. It is colourful irreverent, satirical and makes fun of many things, including, of course, sex.

Our hero (for want of a better word) is Arseny Iratov. When we first meet him he is doing very well. He is around fifty, very well-off and living with Vera, a woman whom he finds very attractive and who seems to think the same about him. He made his money from illegal foreign currency speculation in the Soviet era, moved to dealing in precious stones and now runs an architectural firm, which is building a World Cup stadium.

Every day he takes two pills (we do not know what pills) which help him sleep soundly and wake up refreshed. He occasionally has bad dreams but nothing to worry about. However, when he mentions this to a neurologist, he is highly critical, tells him to stop taking the pills and switch to expensive antidepressants. This has a terrible effect on our hero. He cannot sleep and seems to age. After a while he mentions this in passing to a former doctor who tells him to go back to the original pills, which he does. At this point two key events happen. - The Modern Novel

read more here:

https://www.themodernnovel.org/europe/europe/russia/dmitri-lipskerov/the-tool-and-the-butterflies/