Vita Nostra

Starred review from August 27, 2018
The Dyachenkos’ 2007 novel takes the trope of young people selected for a school for magic and transforms it into an unnerving, deeply philosophical coming-of-age tale. A mysterious man asks 16-year-old Sasha Samokhina to perform a series of bizarre, potentially humiliating tasks that lead to her admission to the enigmatic Institute of Special Technologies. There, students are confronted with unreadable texts and demanding professors, and their obedience is enforced by threats of harm to their families. Sasha excels at the mind-bending, body-transforming “special technologies”; her prodigious talent links her to the hidden mechanics of time, space, and reality itself. But there are no comforting elements of wish-fulfillment in this school story. Her ordeals are frequently harrowing, and all too often she seems nearly powerless in the face of forces that are manipulating and shaping her into something beyond mere humanity. She is nevertheless a sympathetic heroine, and readers will gladly follow her fascinating, disturbing story to its transcendent conclusion. Hersey’s translation is plain and straightforward, a wise choice that enhances the deep strangeness of this trippy, vivid novel. Agent: Joshua Getzler, HSG.

Starred review from January 1, 2019

Originally published in Russian, this modern fantasy follows Sasha Samokhina as she is unwillingly recruited and forced to attend the mysterious Institute of Special Technologies. The teachings seem nonsensical, and failure comes at a high cost, sometimes resulting in the untimely death of a close relative. Through fear and coercion, the students learn at an accelerated speed, unlocking secrets to higher human potential and beyond. The lyrical writing will appeal to those who favor magical realism, and the college atmosphere grounds the novel in the real world. Readers will look forward to the next installment of this fascinating, strange tale. Recommended to fans of Lev Grossman's The Magicians and Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale. VERDICT A must-purchase for libraries serving fantasy-loving mature teens.-Melanie Leivers, Palm Beach Country Library System, FL

October 15, 2018

Touted as the definitive English-language edition of this internationally acclaimed Russian novel, originally published in 2007, this work begins with Sasha, an ordinary teenager studying special technologies at a remote university far from her family home. Always a good student, Sasha is dismayed to find her textbooks filled with gibberish. The professors are intimidating and perhaps not human. As Sasha makes and then loses friends as her talents manifest, she realizes that failing will put her and her family in danger, and she'll have to overcome her greatest fear: who she'll become if she succeeds. As Sasha explores the philosophy of being and consciousness, readers are immersed in a world in which all reality is suspect. Longtime collaborators, the Dyachenkos deftly create a supernatural environment without using magic, spells, or potions. VERDICT Recommended for readers who appreciate the intensity of student bonding in extreme situations, such as in Donna Tartt's The Secret History or Lev Grossman's The Magicians, and the magical realism of Neil Gaiman, Jorge Luis Borges, and Haruki Murakami.--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2018
Punishingly intense academic pressure transforms a university student into a transcendent being in this harrowing fantasy novel by a married Ukrainian couple, the first in a trilogy.Vacationing at the beach with her mom, 16-year-old Sasha Samokhina reacts with terror when a mysterious man in dark sunglasses starts following her around and staring at her. She's right to be scared. He's a supernatural recruiter using coercion--everything from threatening her family to trapping her in time loops--until she agrees to enroll in a provincial university nobody's ever heard of. There, Sasha and her fellow students must memorize long passages of gibberish, solve koanlike math problems, and listen to deadening recordings of silence, all without a single error or misstep, or the people they love will die. Over and over the students are told they're not ready to know the meaning of this work or what their future holds, but their studies change them, eventually uncoupling their existence from the physical plane. In Hersey's sensitive translation, the Dyachenkos (The Scar, 2012, etc.) make vivid the tormenting preoccupations of adolescence and early adulthood: the social anxieties; the baffling dawn of sexuality; the new, uncontrolled powers that come with physical changes; and that simultaneous sense of one's vital importance and one's utter insignificance. It's no surprise that Sasha is at the age when serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder typically first make themselves apparent; the Dyachenkos turn the delusions of mental illness into dangerous magic.Although it fits squarely in the popular school-for-magicians genre, this dark, ambitious, and intellectually strenuous novel will feel like a fresh revelation to fantasy readers glutted with Western wish-fulfillment narratives.

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September 15, 2018
While on holiday, Sasha notices a strange man following her. He has an unusual request: swim during the early morning. After a friend is mysteriously injured, Sasha feels that she has to fulfill his command. Even after she returns home, the man keeps coming back with demands. The strangest is that she change her university plans and attend the Institute of Special Technologies. Soon after arriving at the institute, Sasha realizes that this is no ordinary school. She takes classes like philosophy and English, but all students are required to take Specialty. At first, the readings in Specialty make no sense, but, once she begins to understand, she starts to manifest strange abilities. As Sasha's powers grow, the novel builds to a mind-bending conclusion. While a magical school is a familiar trope, Harry Potter this is not. Dark and foreboding, this fantasy, translated from Russian, is more of philosophical treatise on growing up and the nature of reality than an adventure tale. Readers willing to challenge themselves and slowly digest this deep book will enjoy it immensely.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)