I started writing for Salvatio in English back in early 2000s for my then-extant band. It was supposed to be a Pink Floyd-esque rock album, kind of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ meets George Orwell’s ‘1984’, although with a heavier, gothic metal-like sound.

For many now-irrelevant reasons the process stalled, while different things were on my mind. In 2008 I got cast as an actor by a musical theatre troupe and learnt a thing or two how these things were done.

In early 2010s ‘Salvatio’ finally started getting its final form, more or less. With new characters, new environment – inspired by some real-world events, namely the heat wave of 2010 when the smoke from wildfires engulfed Moscow for many weeks.

Other than that, the balance between esoteric and social dystopian components grossly got shifted towards the latter. The main story turned more personal, either. Some Gnostic, Hermetic and Christian motives still persist though: they’ve been the initial driver, after all.

And I changed the language to Russian this time.

I never planned to do a book, but a certain elderly playwright suggested that I should, in order to streamline some overconvoluted parts of my then-incomplete play. Eventually I started thinking it could be a good idea.

In 2016 I finished it. And my father promoted it to a reputable literaly magazine which had previously published his translations.

…The obituary for my father and the shortened version of the novel got published in the very same issue in 2017. Dad’s final irony and blessing…

The book is available now at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H24GLTWN