Annotation from the publisher For the first time in Russian - a monumental novel by the famous author of Lamprière's Dictionary, a kind of transitional link from this postmodern masterpiece to the multi-genre puzzle In the Shape of a Boar. Norfolk again depicts the world on the verge of an epochal metamorphosis: papal Rome, steeped in luxury and entertainment, attracts adventurers and pilgrims, secret and overt emissaries of neighboring and distant powers, and adventurers of all stripes, like a magnet. And the division of spheres of influence in the New World depends on who will be the first to deliver the mythical beast rhinoceros to Pope Leo X - the Spaniards or the Portuguese. After all, Pliny also wrote that the natural antagonist of the elephant is the rhinoceros, and the Pope already has an elephant..._______Annotations on the dust jacket* * *The largest - in every sense - work of British post-war literature. So brilliant that I was literally spellbound. Tibor Fischer* * *Norfolk is head and shoulders above any British writer of his generation. The Observer* * *Every page of Mr. Norfolk's book bubbles with heady originality, intellectual energy. The New York Times Book Review * * *Norfolk is one of our best writers. Boldly experimenting with language and narrative form, he never sacrifices plot entertainment. Aethonia Byatt* * *Rabelaisian baroque punk, equipped with large-caliber erudition.Independent on Sunday* * *A historical adventure of mesmerizing scale and incredible inventiveness, sometimes devastatingly funny, sometimes Chillingly creepy, sometimes life-affirmingly obscene, sometimes heartfeltly elegiac. Barry Unsworth (Daily Telegraph)* * *Revolutionary novelty of perspective, inexhaustible originality of expression. The Times Literary Supplement* * *One of the most innovative and ambitious historical novels since Robert Graves. An outstanding achievement, practically a masterpiece. The Independent Weekend* * *Mr Norfolk knows what he's doing. Martin Amis* * *Lawrence Norfolk (b. 1963) published his first novel, published at the age of twenty-eight, awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize and stood for three years and a dozen reprints, it has staked out a place in the major league of modern English literature. Lamprière's Dictionary, a masterpiece of modern postmodernism that has earned comparison with the works of Gabriel García Márquez and Umberto Eco, was followed by A Rhinoceros for the Pope and In the Shape of a Boar. The total circulation of these three books exceeded one million copies, and they were translated into thirty-four languages. All Norfolk novels contain exciting detective intrigue, a dramatic story of betrayal, retribution and love, echoes of ancient myths and an original interpretation of events in world history, humorous and grotesque elements; these are mystery novels, labyrinth novels with unique historical and philosophical concepts and fascinating plot twists and turns._______Original title:Lawrence NorfolkTHE POPE'S RHINOCEROS_______The dust jacket uses a drawing by Sergei Shikin