The famous medieval Russian masterpiece, The Lay of Prince Igor’s Campaign, was discovered by accident. Equally accidental is the discovery of an 18th century mystical manuscript titled Revelation of Fire, which appears to be a rara avis even among books of this type. The credo of the author is spirituality, free of any kind of dogma, which is particularly striking in view of the fact that he is an Orthodox monk, living in a remote Zakharine monastery in the central Russia. How could such a person have emerged there?
This is only one of the many paradoxes which Bert Renes, a Dutch Slavonic scholar, has to confront. Renes comes to Moscow just before the 'perestroika' to work on his dissertation, and tracks this unique manuscript down in the catalogue of one of the State archives. Compounding the mystery of the manuscript’s origins is the fact that its present whereabouts are also unknown. Renes establishes that the manuscript, without any beginning or ending, which was issued to him in the Archive reading-room, cannot be Revelation of Fire. So, when was this unique document substituted, and by whom?
The search for the genuine Revelation is conducted simultaneously by Bert Renes, and the Head of the Manuscript Section at the Archive. Along with the reconstruction of the manuscript’s provenance, and the identification of its various owners, succeeding one another over a period of some 200 years, their quest forms the subject of the novel, zigzagging through time to lead the reader to a new confrontation, in the radically transformed Russia of our own day.
alla gives an overview of the book:
The famous medieval Russian masterpiece, The Lay of Prince Igor’s Campaign, was discovered by accident. Equally accidental is the discovery of an 18th century mystical manuscript titled Revelation of Fire, which appears to be a rara avis even among books of this type. The credo of the author is spirituality, free of any kind of dogma, which is particularly striking in view of the fact that he is an Orthodox monk, living in a remote Zakharine monastery in the central Russia. How could such a person have emerged there? This is only one of the many paradoxes which Bert Renes, a Dutch Slavonic scholar, has to confront. Renes comes to Moscow just before the 'perestroika' to work on his dissertation, and tracks this unique manuscript down in the catalogue of one of the State archives. Compounding the mystery of the manuscript’s origins is the fact that its present...
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From Publishers Weekly
Avilova's novel demonstrates an impressive grasp of Russian literature and history, but fails to fully bring to life its world of ancient texts. Bert Renes, a Slavonic scholar, is doing research in Moscow in the early 1980s when he discovers that an intriguing 16th-century manuscript is missing from the state archives. The manuscript, Revelation of Fire, contains the teachings of Eularious, one of the Cenergites line of monks who for centuries remained untouched by the antiheresy movements. As Bert and archivist Nadya Demyanova begin to uncover the secrets of Revelation, their fascination with the manuscript's past grows, and Avilova weaves in historical accounts of the manuscript's past owners, including the self-proclaimed first female Cenergite and a pair of orphan twins who mysteriously disappeared. The depictions of Cold War–era Moscow are convincingly dreary and wonderfully paranoia-inducing, though Avilova has less luck with the historical set pieces, which feel airless. Brainy historical Russian mysticism deployed at a page-turning pace isn't for everyone, but a chunk of devotees will dig it.
About alla
Born in Russia, I took my degree in Russian Literature at the University of Moscow. Since 1979 I have been living in the Netherlands. I was co-publisher of Koörddanser, a Dutch magazine focused on human self-development and contemporary spirituality. These themes are present...
Note from the author coming soon...