One Billion Years to the End of the World

'A beautiful book' Ursula K. Le GuinThis mordantly funny and provocative tale from Soviet Russia's leading science fiction writers is the story of astrophysicist Dmitri Malianov. As he reaches a major breakthrough, he finds himself plagued by interruptions, from a mysterious crate of vodka to a glamorous woman on his doorstep. Is the Universe trying to tell him something?'On putting down one of their books, you feel a cold breeze still lifting the hairs on the back of your neck' The New York Times

Arkady Strugatsky (1925-1991) and Boris Strugatsky (1933-2012) are Russia's most acclaimed and popular science-fiction writers. Their unique style - at once hilarious and pitch black - encompassed a remarkable variety of different genres: from space opera to alien invasion, from locked-room mystery to dystopian apocalypse. While their initial output was uncritical of Soviet life, over time their work became much more subversive - science fiction being the perfect vehicle to hide their critiques from censors. In 1981 they shared the Aelita Award, Russia's most prestigious science-fiction prize.