VITA NOSTRA

This post-modern fantasy novel is described as “Harry Potter meets The Magicians but set in Siberia”. Vita Nostra, originally published in Russia in 2007, received eight literary prizes in Russia and was named Best Sci-fi/Fantasy Novel of the 21st Century at Eurocon-2008.

The wordsvita nostra, or “our life,” come from an old Latin student anthem “Gaudeamus”: “Vita nostra brevis est, Brevi finietur” or “Our life is brief, It will shortly end…”

In Vita Nostra, Alexandra (Sasha)Samokhina is forced into a seemingly inconceivable situation: Against her will, she must enter the Institute of Special Technologies. A slightest misstep or failure at school—and the students’ loved ones pay a price. Governed by fear and coercion, Sasha will learn the meaning of the phrase “In the beginning was the word…”

Magicians author Lev Grossman, when he heard Vita Nostra had been sold to Harper, tweeted “Strange, powerful, magnificent--it was a major influence on the later Magicians books.”Tor.com's recent feature on the book compared Vita Nostra to Grossman "but also a bit of Gaiman...and a bit of Gogol" andraved about Julia Hersey's "incredible" translation.


Sergey and Marina Dyachenko are the authors of twenty-eight science-fiction and fantasy novels and countless short stories. Their novels are recipients of the most prestigious literary awards in the science fiction in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Practically every novel they have written, in addition to several short stories, have received various awards. The Scar, with Tor Books (2012), became their first major book publication in the United States.