Victor Pelevin: Helmet of Horror

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Disclaimer: Not a single fictitious Ancient Greek youth or maiden was killed during the creation of this text.

About the Author

THE HELMET OF HORROR

VICTOR PELEVIN has established a reputation as

one of the most interesting of the younger generation

of RWussian writers. He has degrees from

Moscow’s Gorky Institute of Literature and has

written for the New York Times Magazine, Granta and

Open City . He was selected by the New Yorker as one

of the ‘Best European riters Under 35’ and by the

Observer as one of the ‘21 Writers for the 21st

Century’. His novel, Numbers , won the Grigoriev

Prize from the Russian Academy of Critics 2004.

ANDREW BROMFIELD is a regular translator from

the Russian, and has translated works by Boris

Akunin, Vladimir Voinovich and Irina Denezhkina,

as well as other titles by Victor Pelevin.

Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives – they explore our desires, our fears, our longings, and provide narratives that remind us what it means to be human. The Myths series brings together some of the world’s finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include: Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Karen Armstrong, AS Byatt, David Grossman, Milton Hatoum, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Tomàs Eloy Martínez, Victor Pelevin, Ali Smith, Donna Tartt, Su Tong, Dubravka Ugresic, Salley Vickers and Jeanette Winterson.

Also by Victor Pelevin

Novels

Homo Zapiens (2002)

Buddha’s Little Finger (2000)

Babylon (2000)

The Clay Machine Gun (1998)

Omon Ra (1998)

The Life of Insects (1996)

The Yellow Arrow (1996)

Short Stories

4 by Pelevin (2001)

A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia (1998)

The Blue Lantern (1998)

CopyrightFirst published in Great Britain in 2000 by

Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street,

Edinburgh, EH1 1TEThis digital edition first published in 2009 by Canongate BooksCopyright © Victor Pelevin, 2006

Translation copyright © Andrew Bromfield, 2006The right of Victor Pelevin and Andrew Bromfield to be

identified as respectively the author and translator of the

work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act 1988 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available on

request from the British LibraryISBN 978 1 84767 626 9www.meetatthegate.com