"The novel is so vivid that it seems to be almost extremist."—Komsomolskaya Pravda Sank'ya is an examination of the elements of rebellion and protest. The novel, drawing on Zakhar Prilepin's own experiences, follows Sasha (whose grandmother calls him Sank'ya), a member of an extremist revolutionary group, as he tests the elemental force of the protest movement in Russia and in himself. Sank'ya faces a stark choice in the novel's climax: whether to return to the villages (the unseen Russia) and accept the political fates or to engage the authorities in open rebellion. Originally published in 2006, Sank'ya is even more relevant today as a prism through which to view the recent large-scale actions against Vladimir Putin. It is Prilepin's first novel and is widely considered his best. Zakhar Prilepin, born near Ryazan in 1975, lives in Nizhny Novgorod where he is the regional editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Prilepin had a varied life before dedicating himself to writing, spending time as a student, as a laborer, as a journalist, and as a soldier, serving with the Special Forces in Chechnya.