The entire scientific world mourned the loss of Professor Dowell. It was said that just before his death he was on the verge of a breakthrough in the transplantation of human organs. Marie Laurent felt privileged to work for the professor’s brilliant associate, Professor Kern. But her feelings turned to shock and revulsion when she entered Kern’s laboratory and discovered—sitting on a table, surrounded by tubes and tanks, its eyes blinking and lips moving—Professor Dowell’s head! Thus begins a classic tale of horror and suspense by Alexander Beliaev, the bestselling Soviet science fiction author of all time, whose work is considered by many readers the equal of Wells’ and Verne’s. Written half a century ago, this prophetic novel foresees not only organ transplants but other disturbing phenomena of our time, such as the use of mental hospitals as prisons and the manipulation of the news media. In the heads that Kern “rescues” from death, we see a poignant parable of mankind’s disembodied life in a high-technology age. The escape of one of the heads—after its transplantation to the body of an opera star—is the catalyst for the story’s hair-raising climax, as Marie Laurent and Professor Dowell’s son race against time to bring Kern to justice. Kern is a cunning adversary, armed with formidable weapons, both real and psychological. Pursuing him means hairbreadth escapes and sudden reversals—with the outcome uncertain right up to the last page.
Author
Alexander Romanovich Belyaev (Russian: Александр Романович Беляев); born 16 March 1884 in Smolensk, Russian Empire; died 6 January 1942 in Pushkin, USSR] Born in Smolensk, at the age of 30 Alexander became ill with tuberculosis. Treatment was unsuccessful; the infection spread to his spine and resulted in paralysis of the legs. Belyayev suffered constant pain and was paralysed for six years. In search for the right treatment he moved to Yalta together with his mother and old nanny. During his convalescence, he read the work of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and began to write poetry in his hospital bed. By 1922 he had overcome the disease and in 1923 returned to Moscow where he began his serious literary activity as writer of science fiction novels. In 1925 his first novel, Professor Dowell's Head (Голова Профессора Доуэля) was published. From 1931 he lived in Leningrad with his wife and oldest daughter; his youngest daughter died of meningitis in 1930, aged six. In Leningrad he met H. G. Wells, who visited the USSR in 1934. In the last years of his life Belyaev lived in the Leningrad suburb of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoye Selo). At the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union during Second World War he refused to evacuate because he was recovering after an operation that he had undergone a few months earlier. Belyayev died of hunger in the Soviet town of Pushkin in 1942 while it was occupied by the Nazis. His wife and daughter, who managed to survive, were taken away to Poland by the Nazis. The exact location of his grave is unknown. A memorial stone at the Kazanskoe cemetery in the town of Pushkin is placed on the mass grave where his body is assumed to be buried.
