--- product_id: 11032651 title: "Day of the Oprichnik: A Novel" price: "VT7297" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 9 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/11032651-day-of-the-oprichnik-a-novel store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # Day of the Oprichnik: A Novel **Price:** VT7297 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Day of the Oprichnik: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** VT7297 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/11032651-day-of-the-oprichnik-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description desertcart.com: Day of the Oprichnik: A Novel: 9780374533106: Sorokin, Vladimir, Gambrell, Jamey: Books Review: Ritual, torture, lust. Politics of deadly bent. - What are we reading?: Day of the Oprichnik, by Vladimir Sorokin (translated by Jamey Gambrell). Give me the short version: Ritual, torture, lust. Politics of deadly bent. Starting hungover, alternate future oprichnik Danilovich jams more into his day than most could take in a week. There’s a lot going on in this novel, for its relatively modest length. Lovers of history, sociology and politics will all find fascinations to plunge into, but don’t baulk if none of that fires your blood. I just picked it up ‘cause I like Russia. Day of the Oprichnik is wide open and enjoyable to anyone curious, from any background … although possibly not for faint hearts, unbending sensibilities or queasy stomachs. More suited to adventurous minds, keen to wander off the beaten track and question everything they know, let alone read. If you like doubling-up it’d make a great companion piece to Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Invariably this is a world you’re left wanting to know more about, but Day of the Oprichnik is a perfectly balanced piece and really didn’t need to be a sentence longer. If like me you cracked the pages unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Russian history, do take the time to read up on the brutal real-life historical oprichnina My favourite bit: His Majesty’s father, the late Nikolai Platonovich, had a good idea: liquidate all the foreign supermarkets and replace them with Russian kiosks. And put two types of each thing in every kiosk, so the people have a choice. A wise decision, profound. Because our God-bearing people should choose from two things, not from three or thirty-nine. Choosing one of two creates spiritual calm, people are imbued with certainty in the future, superfluous fuss and bother is avoided, and consequently – everyone is satisfied. Review: Dark humor and parody - This book is an exercise in dark humor. It's set in the future, when the Czarist monarchy has been restored in Russia and the country is as much of a autocratic, paranoid kleptocracy as is was under the real czars - and their successors. It's a parody with humor that non-Russian readers may miss unless they've read a few Russian novels and have some familiarity with Russian history. Even then I'm sure I missed at least half the snide references to present day Russia. It opens and closes with an hilarious parody of the closing lines of Gogol's novel Tarus Bulba. The author lets his imagine run pretty wild and mostly it's fun to read, although it does seem very foreign indeed. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #509,350 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #803 in Political Fiction (Books) #2,876 in Fiction Satire #14,866 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars (535) | | Dimensions | 5.55 x 0.55 x 8.2 inches | | Edition | Reprint | | ISBN-10 | 0374533105 | | ISBN-13 | 978-0374533106 | | Item Weight | 2.31 pounds | | Language | English | | Print length | 208 pages | | Publication date | February 28, 2012 | | Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ## Images ![Day of the Oprichnik: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71SUhBMk4ML.jpg) ![Day of the Oprichnik: A Novel - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81UQBc30R7L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ritual, torture, lust. Politics of deadly bent. *by B***Y on June 27, 2015* What are we reading?: Day of the Oprichnik, by Vladimir Sorokin (translated by Jamey Gambrell). Give me the short version: Ritual, torture, lust. Politics of deadly bent. Starting hungover, alternate future oprichnik Danilovich jams more into his day than most could take in a week. There’s a lot going on in this novel, for its relatively modest length. Lovers of history, sociology and politics will all find fascinations to plunge into, but don’t baulk if none of that fires your blood. I just picked it up ‘cause I like Russia. Day of the Oprichnik is wide open and enjoyable to anyone curious, from any background … although possibly not for faint hearts, unbending sensibilities or queasy stomachs. More suited to adventurous minds, keen to wander off the beaten track and question everything they know, let alone read. If you like doubling-up it’d make a great companion piece to Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. Invariably this is a world you’re left wanting to know more about, but Day of the Oprichnik is a perfectly balanced piece and really didn’t need to be a sentence longer. If like me you cracked the pages unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Russian history, do take the time to read up on the brutal real-life historical oprichnina My favourite bit: His Majesty’s father, the late Nikolai Platonovich, had a good idea: liquidate all the foreign supermarkets and replace them with Russian kiosks. And put two types of each thing in every kiosk, so the people have a choice. A wise decision, profound. Because our God-bearing people should choose from two things, not from three or thirty-nine. Choosing one of two creates spiritual calm, people are imbued with certainty in the future, superfluous fuss and bother is avoided, and consequently – everyone is satisfied. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Dark humor and parody *by M***N on May 29, 2011* This book is an exercise in dark humor. It's set in the future, when the Czarist monarchy has been restored in Russia and the country is as much of a autocratic, paranoid kleptocracy as is was under the real czars - and their successors. It's a parody with humor that non-Russian readers may miss unless they've read a few Russian novels and have some familiarity with Russian history. Even then I'm sure I missed at least half the snide references to present day Russia. It opens and closes with an hilarious parody of the closing lines of Gogol's novel Tarus Bulba. The author lets his imagine run pretty wild and mostly it's fun to read, although it does seem very foreign indeed. ### ⭐⭐⭐ A note on the translation *by S***H on May 15, 2016* Having recently finished reading Russian originals of both The Blizzard and Day of the Oprichnik, I decided to go through respective English translations out of sheer curiosity. I must say that as long as the translation of the Day of the Oprichnik is concerned I am not extremely satisfied with the result of Jamey Gambrell's work. Granted, the Russian original presents numerous challenges, but hitting home with some of the terms (mobilov, Mercedov - really inventive matches to what author uses in the original), she sometimes misses on more common phraseologisms. And what really got me to snap out of my general serene laziness and write this review is a following blunder: “What will happen to Russia?” She doesn’t answer, but looks at me carefully. I wait with trepidation . “It’ll be all right.” I bow, touching the stone floor with my right hand. And I leave. A literally translation from the original goes something like "With Russia, there will be nothing." Although indeed, Russian "nothing" can be translated as "all right", in this particular context it has a more direct meaning too, and Sorokin's phrase carries the connotation of a gloomy Zen saying, a word play which is lost in translation. But maybe I am indeed a bit too peeky. I must say that even since I started reading English translations of Russian authors, trying to find a fitting translation of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which I could recommend to an American friend, I have not so far found a work that would fully satisfy me. At the same time, truth be told, I think that Jamey Gambrell did a much better work with Sorokon's The Blizzard. A good translation, a solid read in it's own right. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/11032651-day-of-the-oprichnik-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/11032651-day-of-the-oprichnik-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-05-03*