Preview - Paperback

Preview is a tragicomic novella with two main characters, Kaputev and Bogoman, strangers to each other who are "crossed-outs" - state enemies in a dictator- ship behind the Iron Curtain. As they sit in an empty theatre waiting for the previews to start, their personal stories unfold, high- lighting the absurdity, comedy and terror of living under a dictatorship, including the per- verse intimacy of the narrator's realization that his thoughts are being picked up and read by his companion. During the film, a lavish production about draining a Siberian swamp, Bogoman's story of a ludicrous weekend at a government resort develops. Even as the story becomes more and more intense and complex, the char- acters can never shake the omnipresent fear of lurking authorities. As Bogoman continues his tale of time spent with a professor, writer, informant, mother-daughter duo, and a tragic toilet accident, it becomes clear that he chose to hide in the theatre after a week- end gone spectacularly wrong. Witty, complex, suspenseful, and full of insight, Orlin Oroschakoff's Preview brings a fresh voice and exciting perspective to the literary canon.