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The Sacred Book of the Werewolf Audiobook
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(3.00) - 1,483 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
A. Hu-li, beautiful and curiously foxlike, has the appearance of a luscious fourteen-year-old girl, the mind of a sly Buddhist monk, and an endearing habit of name-dropping all the famous people she's met over the past two thousand years. She works as a classy prostitute in Moscow's premier hotels, until one client goes inexplicably and fatally berserk at the sight of her and she has to leave in a hurry. Forced to advertise on the Internet, she comes to the attention of an intelligence officer who also happens to be a werewolf.
Victor Pelevin's new work of fiction is both a supernatural love story and an outrageously funny satirical portrait of modern Russia. With all his characteristic humor and metaphysical ambition, Pelevin introduces us to an unforgettable cast of perverts, former KGB agents, oil tycoons, and amorous werewolves.
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"A horror folktale masquerading as social criticism disguised as comedy wrapped in zen meditation with the secret to mindblowing virtual sex? Who could ask for more? "
— Brian (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Absurdist, satirical, irredeemably hyperactive, Victor Pelevin is one of Russia’s cult authors…His prose fizzes with a mishmash of Classical philosophy, Buddhism and western metaphysics, myth, anecdote, self-referentiality—and wisecracks.”
— Times Literary Supplement -
“Full of tour de force passages…it has the ring of truth, the same truth as books before it by Gogol, Goncharov, Bulgakov, Zamyatin—men who looked with satiric sympathy into the Russian soul and wrote brilliant, heartbroken, funny fables about what they found there.”
— Guardian (London) -
“Strange, frenetic and beguiling…Pelevin [is] one of the most exciting writers to emerge from new Russia.”
— Observer (London) -
“Pelevin aficionados will glide joyously into the postmodernity of this supernatural love affair, which fuses philosophical discourse with lascivious and semantic game-playing. There’s plenty of intellectual fun here, from the sport of hunting English aristocrats to the idea of howling a demonic plea into the night to summon oil from a near-spent field.”
— Independent (London) -
“Equal parts biting satire on neo-Russian consumerism, drug-fueled muckabout, sci-fi adventure, love story, literary in-joke and mystico-shamanic treatise on the nature of enlightenment. Disruptive, transporting and very funny, it’s one of his best.”
— Telegraph (London) -
“An outrageously enjoyable, uniquely mind-blowing and transformational literary experience. A truly liberating read.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“[An] unusual and thoughtful contemporary fantasy…Cassandra Campbell deftly inhabits the character of the sensual, cynical, playful, and lonely A. Hu-Li as she seeks enlightenment and unexpectedly finds love with a werewolf. Campbell also makes a wonderfully subtle point; her narration and conversations with other werefoxes are spoken in an American accent, but her dialogue to other Russians is delivered in a Russian accent, indicating that A. Hu-Li’s true self remains hidden from the outside world.”
— AudioFile -
“Thought-provoking and philosophical…A commentary on modern Russian culture, spiced with Buddhist theology, wrapped in an urban fantasy.”
— Library Journal -
“The novel holds our interest with unpredictable twists and turns, leaving us stunned, puzzled, and asking for more.”
— Booklist -
“This complex, subtle allegorical tale demands a subtle, layered performance. Campbell delivers, freighting her reading with the hint of double (or even triple) meanings, smoothly transitioning between reality, fantasy and various in-between states. She reads with precise diction and moderate inflection—realizing, perhaps, that overdoing the verbal performance would undercut the subtleties of the prose…Campbell’s performance is definitely top drawer.”
— Booklist (audio review)
Awards
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One of the 2008 New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books for Fiction
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf Listener Reviews
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" Very unusual novel. A philosophical, fantastical exposition of the twenty-first century Russian soul and character. An extended allegory that, as an American, I am not sure I fully got. Interesting and worth reading, for its very Russian outlook. "
— Susan, 2/17/2014 -
" 80% clunky metaphysical exposition, 15% weird sex, 5% love story. "
— Christina, 2/8/2014 -
" This is a unique and interesting book...just not my taste. I little bit too much philosophy, too much surrealism, not enough plot. Its mostly about an old werewolf who looks like a child who works as a prostitute. The main character, the fox A Hu-Li, falls in love with a werewolf. Yet the falling in love takes a while in the book and except for about 50 pages of interesting plot, the remainder is the fox and the werewolf meditating on their life. Unique book, interesting idea, not my cup of tea. "
— Jason, 1/27/2014 -
" I wasn't looking for a philosophy lesson. Much of it was engaging but the drawn out convoluted parts where the ones that stand out. The reviews on the book are dead off about it, but I do love a book with a wrapped up ending "
— Ziona, 1/7/2014 -
" I had the feeling the author was trying to tell me about peanuts while showing me a carrot.... "
— Sindre, 1/1/2014 -
" Not sure how a book about a werefox prostitute in post-Soviet Russia manages to be boring, but this novel managed to do just that. Color me seriously disappointed. "
— Becca, 12/26/2013 -
" A dog watches the stick; a lion watches the man who threw it. "
— Rachael, 12/19/2013 -
" Very Tom Robbins-esque but, unfortunately, of a diminished order. I'm willing to chalk it up to a case of "lost in translation," but it never got past "ok" for me. "
— Matthew, 12/18/2013 -
" It is a little pretentious, but enjoyable. "
— JuliAnna, 11/26/2013 -
" To me this book is pretentious; meant to be read to prove that you can follow it and its the references. I didn't like the main character which is of course always a problem. "
— Rachael, 10/16/2013 -
" A horror folktale masquerading as social criticism disguised as comedy wrapped in zen meditation with the secret to mindblowing virtual sex? Who could ask for more? "
— Brian, 10/14/2013 -
" I hated this book. truly. There may have been great metaphors that I missed, but mostly it felt like a pretentious effort to link al ot of erudite stuff in what was really just a Beauty and the Beast- meets - Nabakovian pedophile effort of prurient crap. "
— Marie, 4/7/2013 -
" Not my cup of wodka. "
— Ann, 3/8/2013 -
" This book is FUN to read. "
— Joe, 6/27/2012 -
" i liked it, but i don't think i understood half of it (which is usually the case with russian lit). "
— Michelle, 6/12/2012 -
" Neither fantasy nor science-fiction, I understood this novel as a fable by a post-modern Aesop. The main character and narrator is a Buddhist were-fox who appears to have read Wittgenstein, among many other thinkers. Interesting enough, and sometimes quite funny. "
— Jv, 5/20/2012 -
" an interesting read...what started out as an uber riveting & intriguing examination on life/perceived reality vs. reality/etc turned out to be just a'ight. a good airplane book for those looking for a little something to bide their time, but not demand too much of them. "
— Lucie, 10/31/2011 -
" This book combines fantasy lore with philosophy and cultural criticism. I can't say enough good things. AWESOME. "
— Thatfondimpossibility, 6/19/2011 -
" This book was pretty good. I would really like to read something else by Victor Pelevin, any suggestions? "
— Robert, 5/9/2011 -
" Better than 2 stars, but not quite 3. "
— Cameron, 4/24/2011 -
" I wasn't looking for a philosophy lesson. Much of it was engaging but the drawn out convoluted parts where the ones that stand out. The reviews on the book are dead off about it, but I do love a book with a wrapped up ending "
— Ziona, 4/6/2011 -
" Better than 2 stars, but not quite 3. "
— Cameron, 1/14/2011 -
" Not as a good as a Werewolf Problem in Central Russia. "
— Sarah, 12/2/2010 -
" Reads like Master & Margarita .... "
— Karmen, 10/4/2010 -
" Decent book but left many questions unanswered. An understanding of Russian modern history would be helpful to understand the satire and references of the novel. "
— Anh, 9/19/2010 -
" This was an incredibly original and amazing book! "
— Colleen, 8/25/2010 -
" Creative mythologic philosophic Zen and the Art of supernatural illusory relations. A wild ride, if only to the center of the mind. "
— Christen, 7/15/2010 -
" A wonderful read, and full of hope. Unfortunately, it tries a bit hard on the metaphysical side of things. Oh well. "
— Bradford, 7/7/2010
About Victor Pelevin
Victor Pelevin is the author of A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories, The Life of Insects, Omon Ra, The Yellow Arrow, and The Blue Lantern, a collection of short stories that won the Russian “Little Booker” Prize. His novel Buddha’s Little Finger was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He was named by the New Yorker as one of the best European writers under thirty-five and by the Observer newspaper in London as one of “twenty-one writers to watch for the twenty-first century.”
About Cassandra Campbell
Cassandra Campbell has won multiple Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and the prestigious Odyssey Award for narration. She was been named a “Best Voice” by AudioFile magazine and in 2018 was inducted in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame.