Heart Of The Taiga Serdtse Parmy Novel 2003, 2006 479 pp Publishers: Palmira, Moscow; Azbooka, St Petersburg Rights sold to: Serbia: Solaris Film Rights: Central Partnership, Russia

Sample English translation is available

There’s everything in this book, true magic and evil spirits, a ruinous passion and grand battles. There are feats and treachery. There are sieges and thrilling expeditions to mysterious places. There are executions and human sacrifices. There are siege sledges, war-elks and werewolves. Alexei Ivanov has succeeded in creating a captivating read for both lovers of adventure and intrigue and demanding aesthetes.
In the 15th century, at the time of Ivan the third, Muscovite Russia set out to new lands in the vast Northern territory of the Perm region. Moscow settlers built up new towns in the depths of the forest, among the bleak rocks, along the wild mountain rivers. Moscow regiments followed after native warriors of hanty, mansi and voguls on secret mossy paths to pagan temples spattered with idols and surrounded by fences crowned by human heads. Moscow priests came to build and consecrate temples and monasteries in the reserved dense forests of Parma.
Newcomers did not fully realize, however, that the natives were not “just pagans.” -  Not yielding to the new power, mighty princedoms of Perm struck fiercely back. Parma proved to be more than a big forest of taiga. A heathen universe, it drove Russian bishops mad and ruined Moscow princes, leaking through armour and impregnating strangers with its magic.

Moscow and Parma each had their fates.  Parma’s fate was tensely interwoven with fairy lore:  terrifying pangolins, immortal warriors and bewitching lamias.  Yet, Moscow’s fate, with its mission to accumulate land, was stronger.

Praise for the novel:
“A gripping, thorough plot, historically reliable…Ivanov succeeds in the almost impossible. He has created a really PATRIOTIC and at the same time serious novel which is in no way sugary or pompous.  Grade: 5 stars.” - Alexander Garros and Alexei Evdokimov, winners of the National Bestseller Prize, 2003

 “Lately I’ve been watching more than reading. Like, I enjoyed watching the epic LORD OF THE RINGS. I loved the novel THE HEART OF THE TAIGA by Alexei Ivanov. <…> When I start reading a good historical novel, I see the author and at this point our discussion begins….” -  Vladimir Sorokin

“This is a grand, branchy, astonishingly gripping novel about people, gods and nations, as they choose roads of fate.” - Leonid Yuzefovich, winner of the National Bestseller Prize, 2001 

“This [HEART OF THE TAIGA] is the best novel I’ve read in the long time! This writer from the Urals is probably a genius.” -  Ilya Stogoff, the bestselling author of MACHOS DON’T CRY

“The specific Permian perception of the world and specifically of Russian history has clearly revealed itself as the main literary sensation of the year.” - Book Review Magazine

“One of the main themes of the novel is the collision of two worlds: the world of mature orthodox Christianity, hardened in battle with enemies both foreign and at home, and the heathen world – vehement, powerful, free. This is no sugar-sweet “poplit”, as so often happens with “Slav fantasy” yet a stern, gloomy and even excessively bloody picture. This is a strange and weird world, which enchants you once and for all with its wild pagan beauty.” -  Reality-fantasy Magazine

“HEART OF THE TAIGA has a bewitching pagan vitality.” -  Izvestia

“This is a wild, fierce and crazy novel which creates a highly plausible atmosphere of reality.  After reading it the past will never be the same.” - Russian Journal

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