Draft:Not Saying Goodbye


Not Saying Goodbye
AuthorBoris Akunin
Original titleНе Прощаюсь (Ne Proshayus)
TranslatorAndrew Bromfield
SeriesErast Fandorin
GenreHistorical detective
PublisherZakharov (Russia), Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK), Random House (US)
Publication date
2018
Publication placeRussia
Published in English
2019 (Andrew Bromfield for Weidenfeld & Nicholson)
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback), free text online (Russian)
Pages416 (Hardcover English translation)
Preceded byBlack City 
Followed byJust Masa 

Not Saying Goodbye (Russian: , Ne proshayus) is the seventeenth novel from the Erast Fandorin series of historical detective novels by Russian author Boris Akunin. It was published in Russia in 2018.

The novel is subtitled шпионский детектив ("an espionage mystery"). It takes place in Moscow during the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918 with Fandorin exploring the new world after spending 4 years in a coma after a gunshop he suffered in Black City.

Publication and development

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In interviews preceding the publication of the book, Akunin stated that he only had one more, final novel to write about Fandorin. On October 8, 2017, Akunin announced that he had finished working on the series of works about Erast Fandorin. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"I hereby notify all interested parties that on this 8th day of the tenth month of the 29th year of the Heisei era, I have completed the last book of the series 'Adventures of Erast Fandorin'... The novel is scheduled for release on February 8, 2018, the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first Fandorin book, the novel 'Azazel'."

On January 1, 2018, one month before the book's release, Boris Akunin published the first chapter of the novel as a New Year's gift to readers on his Facebook page. From this chapter, it becomes known what happened to Fandorin after the events described in "Black City".

The novel "I Don't Say Goodbye" was released on February 8, 2018, on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the first book in the Fandorin series, the novel "Azazel".[citation needed]

Journalist Denis Korsakov reports that discussions about the creation of this book had been going on for a long time, "since the end of the last century. Lev Danilkin, now the laureate of the 'Big Book,' and then a young and enthusiastic literary critic, author of one of the first reviews of Akunin's texts, mentioned that the novel would be a remake of 'The Adjutant His Excellency.' Around the same time, the original title emerged - 'Everything's Fine'".[1]

Reception

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On its English-language publication, Jake Kerridge of The Daily Telegraph said, "If not up to the zinging ingenuity of the early Fandorins, [Not Saying Goodbye] is a marked improvement on recent ones, and although it can be self-indulgent and voulu, there are some surprisingly effective assaults on the emotions as Fandorin's story zigzags to its close."[2]

References

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  1. ^ Denis Korsakov (11 February 2018). "Requiem for Petrovich". Komsomolskaya Pravda. Archived from the original on 23 August 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  2. ^ Kerridge, Jake (7 December 2019). "And now we face the final curtain — CRIME FICTION: After more comebacks than Sinatra, has Fandorin gone for good?". The Daily Telegraph. p. 29. Retrieved 5 October 2024.