New Book Releases from the STSC Members
#1 Tulubaikaporia by Vanechka, translated by Vanya Bagaev
Betsy: Good day. Lovely day, isn’t it? Felix, I know you have a busy schedule, so I certainly appreciate your time. I’m glad we could get together so we can introduce our readers to the Soaring Twenties Social Club member’s New Book Releases. Their talents certainly do run deep, and with quite a few of them publishing books this spring, we’ve decided to feature them here on the STSC Substack for our readers. It’s hard to know where to start. But perhaps we should start with an update on the perfectly natural, not at all suspicious or malicious, (certainly not a coup) recent absence of our dear leader, King Thomas J Bevan - long may he live, long may he prosper. I’ve heard that he was out for a stroll one evening and as the full moon rose, he simply disappeared. Poof! not a trace. Of course it’s being investigated. Rumors are that along his usual route a small tuft of coarse hair was found lying beside a scrap of paper with the words “fuck me this is content” scribbled on it, maybe it means something. What have you heard? Any thoughts? Most importantly tell us a little about our featured book.
Felix: Good day indeed! I can’t say it’s lovely but it’s approaching that quality asymptotically just like what our first featured book Tulubaikaporia does. That said, Tulubaika, the main character of the book, and our dear leader Thomas J Bevan have a lot in common — both are full of wonders but both are unreachable and seemingly vanishing to somewhere beyond our comprehension! Perhaps the book’s cosmic quest isn’t finding Tulubaika but finding Thomas, you never know! But semi-jokes aside, this is a book about a vanishing Russian village, about the nature of memory, time, about the impossible objects and our desire to have them, wherein one of such objects is nothing but our own past (!) be it a past place or past time!
Tulubaikaporia
To Our Wayward Children,
There’s a village, but it’s vanishing as you read this. To save it will require a ritual, and we need you. Your quest is of cosmic complexity: hasten thither. We shall furnish you with a theory of place-time-memory, whisper which way to wander, and, if needed, pour artisanal drinks: moonshine, mushroom tinctures, chai, and tears of various kinds. Neither map nor compass shall guide you (apologies), therefore venture forth at hazard, by hunch — trust to luck. Feel the path in your gut: through the golden birch labyrinths, the infinite fields, mirages, hallucinations, glossolalias, and [redacted]. We’re certain you won’t fail us. You’re the only hope, for everyone else has either left or not yet arrived. No pressure, though. If you can’t make it, at least please laugh at the wake.
Beams of appreciation,
Tulubaika
Some of the early reviews:
“Playing with the evolution of literary craftsmanship”
— Jason Arias on Reedsy Discovery (checkout the full long review)
“This book, this ritual, this Tulubaikaporia is EXTRAORDINARY”
“One of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while”
“An expertly crafted, wild adventure”
“A great book from a rising talent”
From the author vanechka:
Despite Tulubaika’s meaning — obscure, incarnations — infinite, Tulubaikaporia is a book about my village and my own inability to go back to that village for various reason, be it physical or metaphysical, be it political or ontological. In case of the latter(s), Tulubaika’s of course more than a village, a transcendent impossible object of longing, a cosmic well of cosily absurd melancholy, the only thing about that I, and others equally, can reach, drink its waters, and maybe in a drunken stupor trying to swim in it to reach its bottoms. This might be the primary concern of the book, what it attempts to deals with, and, as I heard from the readers so far, dealt with successfully, but it’s not the primary concern of my, for it lays rather in more personal and sincere aspiration, at the same time — magical and spiritual, such as an attempt to, firstly, say goodbye to it and my grandparents, and secondly (paradoxically, too), to immortalise both, the village and my grandparents who raised me there, by turning the place and memory into a myth that can then live forever in the literary planes. So, as the subtitle states, Tulubaikaporia is indeed a ritual, a literary one, a method of doing magical mythologisation-immortalisation. The first stage, I reckon, has gone successfully, for there’re already more people in the world who have heard about Tulubaika than before, and the next step would be to make more people nostalgic about the village than have ever lived there. And with that, I need your help!
The author’s substack:
Betsy: Some things are beyond our grasp Felix, but I certainly hope everyone can find and read Tulubaikaporia. Vanechka and his translator Vanya Bagaev are a rare talent. We may find Thomas as well, an interesting and odd synchronicity you’ve observed.
Felix: True that, indeed, my dear Betsy. You never know what’s to be found in the ontologically convoluted multidimensional planes of existence, what kinds of wonders and dangers we can encounter, what kind of entities are waiting there to devour us, well, emotionally at least, be it a wayward cult leader, his humble tribe itching for a soft coup, or something bigger. You never know…
Betsy: The only thing I know for certain is the talented STSC members, have been busy writing and publishing some real bangers and the cult club looks forward to presenting their books here on the Substack for our dear readers in the coming weeks.
Good day and “Beams of Appreciation!”
Incredible!! Love this SO much! And omg the tuft of coarse hair and scribble note had me rollin'! Well done, my dear ones, and I can attest to the book being a piece of physical art - and I know for certain it will be literary art as well - can't wait to dig in. And, maybe even read it five times through as Betsy has done. Congrats on the revolutionary takeover, it could not be done by two better characters!