Герман Садулаев - The Maya Pill

The Necessary Marriage .

Pigeon Post .

Vain Art of the Fugue .

ESTHER TUSQUETS, Stranded .

DUBRAVKA UGRESIC, Lend Me Your Character .

Thank You for Not Reading .

TOR ULVEN, Replacement .

MATI UNT, Brecht at Night .

Diary of a Blood Donor .

Things in the Night .

ÁLVARO URIBE AND OLIVIA SEARS, EDS.,

Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction .

ELOY URROZ, Friction .

The Obstacles .

LUISA VALENZUELA, Dark Desires and the Others .

He Who Searches .

PAUL VERHAEGHEN, Omega Minor .

AGLAJA VETERANYI, Why the Child Is Cooking in the Polenta .

BORIS VIAN, Heartsnatcher .

LLORENÇ VILLALONGA, The Dolls’ Room .

TOOMAS VINT, An Unending Landscape .

ORNELA VORPSI, The Country Where No One Ever Dies .

AUSTRYN WAINHOUSE, Hedyphagetica .

CURTIS WHITE, America’s Magic Mountain .

The Idea of Home .

Memories of My Father Watching TV .

Requiem .

DIANE WILLIAMS, Excitability: Selected Stories .

Romancer Erector .

DOUGLAS WOOLF, Wall to Wall .

Ya! & John-Juan .

JAY WRIGHT, Polynomials and Pollen .

The Presentable Art of Reading Absence .

PHILIP WYLIE, Generation of Vipers .

MARGUERITE YOUNG, Angel in the Forest .

Miss MacIntosh, My Darling .

REYOUNG, Unbabbling .

VLADO ŽABOT, The Succubus .

ZORAN ŽIVKOVIĆ, Hidden Camera .

LOUIS ZUKOFSKY, Collected Fiction .

VITOMIL ZUPAN, Minuet for Guitar .

SCOTT ZWIREN, God Head .

I Am a Chechen!

Originally published in Russian as Tabletka by Ad Marginem Press, Moscow, 2008

Copyright © 2008 by German Sadulaev

Translation and afterword © 2013 by Carol Apollonio

First edition, 2013

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sadulaev, German.

[Tabletka. English]

The Maya pill / German Sadulaev ; Translated by Carol Apollonio. -- First Edition.

pages cm

“Originally published in Russian as Tabletka by Ad Marginem Press, Moscow, 2008.”

ISBN 978-1-564-78906-8 (alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-564-78941-9 (e-book)

I. Flath, Carol A. (Carol Apollonio), translator. II. Title.

PG3493.42.D85T3313 2013

891.73’5--dc23

2013033396

Partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency

Published with the support of the Institute for Literary Translation, Russia

www.dalkeyarchive.com

Cover: design and composition by Mikhail Iliatov

The only inscription in the Khazar language that has been deciphered by scholars. Some linguists believe that it means “All things are possible.” The phrase was found inscribed on a stone stela that, some historians say, stood outside the home of a distinguished family of Khazar merchants; it may have served as their motto. Mainstream scholarship, however, does not recognize the stela, believing it to be a later fabrication; does not recognize the inscription itself, which is an imitation of the Sanskrit Devanagari alphabet; puts no stock in the belief that the inscription is in the Khazar language; and doesn’t think much of the translation either.

Boris Grebenshikov.

The compilation of standards and conditions for international trade.

FCA (free carrier) conditions for delivery specify that the seller fulfill his obligations.

Nomenclature for goods in international trade.

Translator’s note : The reference is to the pro-government youth group Nashi—which means “ours” in Russian—and to its annual rally. The author might well be pointing out the happy accident of this name’s morphological similarity to “Nazi”—and Nashist to “fascist,” for that matter.

Translator’s note : The word mak (as in the nickname “Mack”), in Russian, means “poppy,” as in the poppy plant.

To quote a song by a Petersburg rock group.

Translator’s note : Evgeny Petrosyan (b. 1945) is a famous Soviet/Russian comedian of Armenian and Jewish ancestry.

That is: Tripping to China, or: A Trip Made of China.

An instant messaging program. I-C-Q = “I seek you”.

“Teacher of Perfection.” Europeans pronounce his name “Confucius.”

Revolutionary song.

Ilya Kormiltsev (lyricist for the band Nautilus Pompilius), from the song “Diamond Roads.”

God save us from the fierce Normans! (Latin).