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Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk
Cover of Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk
Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk
A Novel
Borrow Borrow
Fans of Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog, the first book in Akunin’s Pelagia trilogy, will be instantly mesmerized–and frightened–by this latest foray into Zavolzhsk’ s spiritual underworld.
In the middle of the night, a disheveled and badly frightened monk arrives at the doorstep of Bishop Mitrofanii of Zavolzhsk, crying: “Something’s wrong at the Hermitage!” The Hermitage is the centuries-old island monastery of New Ararat, known for its tradition of severely penitent monks, isolated environs, and a mental institution founded by a millionaire in self-imposed exile. Hearing the monk’s eerie message, Mitrofanii’s befuddled but sharp-witted ward Sister Pelagia begs to visit New Ararat and uncover the mystery. Traditions prevail–no women are allowed–and the bishop sends other wards to test their fates against the Black Monk that haunts the once serene locale. But as the Black Monk claims more victims–including Mitrofanii’s envoys–Pelagia goes undercover to see exactly what person, or what spirit, is at the bottom of it all.

Praise for Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk

“For all his status as a globe-circling bestseller, Akunin keeps faith in his sleekly engineered and allusive whodunnits with the classical virtues of Russian prose. . . . That polish lends his books a peculiar charm.”The Independent (London)

“Readers can hear echoes of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekov in whodunits that, because of their literary overtones, can be guiltlessly consumed as entertainment.”Los Angeles Times
Fans of Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog, the first book in Akunin’s Pelagia trilogy, will be instantly mesmerized–and frightened–by this latest foray into Zavolzhsk’ s spiritual underworld.
In the middle of the night, a disheveled and badly frightened monk arrives at the doorstep of Bishop Mitrofanii of Zavolzhsk, crying: “Something’s wrong at the Hermitage!” The Hermitage is the centuries-old island monastery of New Ararat, known for its tradition of severely penitent monks, isolated environs, and a mental institution founded by a millionaire in self-imposed exile. Hearing the monk’s eerie message, Mitrofanii’s befuddled but sharp-witted ward Sister Pelagia begs to visit New Ararat and uncover the mystery. Traditions prevail–no women are allowed–and the bishop sends other wards to test their fates against the Black Monk that haunts the once serene locale. But as the Black Monk claims more victims–including Mitrofanii’s envoys–Pelagia goes undercover to see exactly what person, or what spirit, is at the bottom of it all.

Praise for Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk

“For all his status as a globe-circling bestseller, Akunin keeps faith in his sleekly engineered and allusive whodunnits with the classical virtues of Russian prose. . . . That polish lends his books a peculiar charm.”The Independent (London)

“Readers can hear echoes of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekov in whodunits that, because of their literary overtones, can be guiltlessly consumed as entertainment.”Los Angeles Times
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Excerpts-
  • Chapter One PART ONE 

    The Canaan Expeditions 


    The First Expedition

    The Adventures of the Comic
     

    Alexei Stepanovich’s preparations did not take long and he left on his secret expedition two days after the conversation with His Grace, after having received strict instructions to send reports on his progress at least once every three days. 

    Taking into account the wait for the steamer in Sineozersk and the subsequent voyage across the lake, the journey to New Ararat took four days, and the first letter arrived after exactly one week; in other words it appeared that for all his nihilistic attitude, Alyosha was a reliable envoy who carried out his instructions to the letter. 

    His Grace was very pleased with the report’s punctual arrival and the report itself, but pleased most of all because he had not been mistaken in the boy. He summoned Berdichevsky and Sister Pelagia and read out the report to them, although he occasionally frowned at the insufferably rollicking freedom of the style. 

    Alexei Stepanovich’ s First Letter 

    To Roland’s most glorious Archbishop Turpin from his faithful paladin, sent to do battle with enchanters and Saracens, 

    Oh pastor of great wisdom and sternness, 
    Terror of deep-rooted superstitions, 
    Luminary of faith and loving-kindness, 
    Defender of orphans and lash of the proud! 
    At your feet do I humbly cast down 
    My simple and artless tale. 
    Ah-oo! 

    As, shaking on a creaking wagon, 
    I struggled through the kingdom of Zavolzhsk, 
    And on that mournful road did count 
    Fifteen thousand, one hundred and one 
    Ruts and also potholes deep, 
    Many a time there came to me 
    Bad thoughts about Your Grace’s person 
    And I did utter sacrilegious words. 
    Ah-oo! 

    But when the Blue Sea’s sacred waters 
    Did glitter brightly in the distance far, 
    Conquered by this captivating landscape, 
    Straightaway did I forget my hardships, 
    And prayed as I was borne across 
    On the smoke-puffing, snow white vessel 
    Named for the good Saint Basilisk. 
    Ah-oo! 

    Through the long, moonlit, chilly night 
    I shivered ’neath my meager blanket 
    And when I tried to close my eyes in sleep, 
    My fragile dreams were forthwith interrupted 
    By the captain’s wild swearing rant, 
    The devout chanting of the sailors’ prayers, 
    And the bell’s booming hourly chime. 

    And so, to switch from exhausting versification to delightfully welcome prose, I disembarked on the quayside in New Ararat short of sleep and as bad-tempered as the devil. Oh, forgive me, Father—it just slipped out, and if I cross it out now, it will look untidy, and you don’t like that, so to hell with the devil, let  him be. 

    To tell the truth, in addition to the sounds of the ship, I was also prevented from sleeping by the book that you placed in my basket, together with the incomparable episcopal curd rolls, as you saw me off, adding in a most innocent voice, “Pay no attention to the title, Alyosha, and don’t worry, it’s not religious reading, just a little novel—to help you pass the time on the journey.” Oh most perfidious of the priests of Babylon! 

    The title—The Possessed—and the substantial thickness of the “little novel” really did frighten me at first, and I only started reading it...
About the Author-
  • BORIS AKUNIN is the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, who was born in the Republic of Georgia in 1956. A philologist, critic, essayist, and translator of Japanese, Akunin published his first detective stories in 1998 and has already become one of the most widely read authors in Russia.
    He is the author of eleven Erast Fandorin novels, including The Winter Queen, The Turkish Gambit, Murder on the Leviathan, The Death of Achilles, and Special Assignments, available from Random House Trade Paperbacks; and Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog and Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk, in the Sister Pelagia series. He lives in Moscow.
Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    Starred review from March 24, 2008
    Akunin, best known for his Erast Fandorin series (Special Assignments
    , etc.), has created another memorable sleuth in Sister Pelagia, a 19th-century Russian nun whose insights into human nature and curiosity will remind many of G.K. Chesterton’s Father Brown. In this excellent second installment (after 2007’s Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog
    ), Pelagia’s superior, Bishop Mitrofanii of Zavolzshsk, dispatches a series of emissaries to investigate the horrifying apparition of a black monk that’s haunting the monastery of New Ararat on the shores of the Blue Lake, a locale as creepy as the moors of The Hound of the Baskervilles
    . When all end up victims of the ghostly figure, Pelagia defies the bishop and travels to the remote community to pursue the case. Readers will savor Akunin’s distinctive narrative voice as well as the artful blend of humor and horror with such elements of traditional detective fiction as cleverly concealed clues and numerous false solutions. 

  • Booklist

    May 1, 2008
    In the sequel to Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog (2007), the ghost of a centuries-old black monk, Saint Basilisk, is apparently terrorizing the island monastery of New Ararat. Aftera series of investigators all meet with unusual ends, Bishop Mitrofanii allows Sister Pelagia to go undercover to see if she can unearth the truth: Is the ghost behind the eerie goings-on, or is there a more prosaic explanation? Akunin, a Russian essayist and novelist (his Erast Fandorin mysteries are increasingly popular), is heavily influenced by Chekhov and Dostoyevsky, both of whom are reflected in the novels atmospheric prose, its nineteenth-century-Russia setting, its social commentary, and its exploration of ethics and the nature of evil. The book reflects a marked shift in tone, if not in subject matter, from the Fandorin novels, which feel like light, almost campycomedies compared to the Pelagia series. But that is not criticism: this is a very good novel, deep and dark and rich in flavor, and though it may not please Fandorin fans, it should find its own audience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

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Sister Pelagia and the Black Monk
A Novel
Boris Akunin
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