Squirrel, first published in 1984, quickly became a cult classic of late-Soviet literature. Its author, Anatoly Kim, is a Russian novelist of Koryo-saram descent, born to a Korean family in the USSR. To pass Soviet censorship, the novel was framed as a “fairy-tale novel” — but it’s better understood as a work of magical realism, unusual for being set not in Latin America (the genre’s usual home) but in Moscow and the Russian countryside.
The novel weaves together people and animals, light and darkness, creation and love, asking philosophical questions through an unconventional narrative structure. It was reissued in 2018 by the publisher Eksmo as part of a “Big Prose: Anatoly Kim” series — 384 pages, hardcover.
Kim is one of the most prominent Koryo-saram voices in Russian-language literature, and Squirrel remains one of his most acclaimed works.
Source: Labirint — «Белка» Анатолий Ким