Astronaut!

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A01=Oana Aristide
Author_Oana Aristide
Bolsheviks
books about communism
Category=FFD
Category=FXB
Ceaucescu
coming-of-age
communism
Death of Stalin
detective novel
eq_bestseller
eq_crime
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
fall of communism
funny books
hero's journey
heroic characters
mystery novel
novels about bears
novels about communism
political books
Romanian history
Romanian literature
Romanian novels
satire
satirical books
surreal novels
witty books

Product details

  • ISBN 9781035420827
  • Weight: 340g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 232mm
  • Publication Date: 26 Mar 2026
  • Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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'Part thriller, part fable, this is fascinating, funny and very moving - highly recommended.' - GUARDIAN

'Brilliant, compulsive and thrilling. I will be reading this book again!' - Alice Winn, author of IN MEMORIAM

'One of the best novels I've read this year.' - Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre

'You will love this book!' - Jennifer Croft, translator of Flights by Olga Tokarczuk and author of The Extinction of Irena Rey

~ ~ ~

Romania, 1989: a grey place of mysterious queues, ubiquitous informers and daily news flashes about a man-eating bear that is terrorising the country.

Amidst the daily drudge of work, rationing and careful conversation with neighbours, two lives unexpectedly collide when an idealistic police detective, Constantin, is tasked with solving a string of grisly murders, and a rebellious school child, Lia, is unwittingly drawn into her elderly neighbour's seditious plot.

Dryly satirical, incredibly tense and deeply moving, ASTRONAUT! is both a detective novel and a coming-of-age tale, one with a perennially relevant message: the lies we accept today become the truths of tomorrow.

More praise for ASTRONAUT!:
'Had me on the edge of my seat' - Kenan Orhan, author of The Renovation
'If Solzhenitsyn and Hans Christian Andersen had had literary offspring, it might be Oana Aristide.' - Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, author of American Estrangement
'Completely absorbing.' - Georgina Godwin, broadcaster and literary journalist
'With dark, bone-dry wit [. . . ] Astronaut! is quite unlike anything else so far this year.' - IRISH TIMES

Oana Aristide is a writer, travel journalist, macroeconomist and hotelier. She was born in Transylvania, to parents of Romanian, Greek and Yemeni background. After the fall of communism, the family emigrated to Sweden. She is the author of Under the Blue, one of Times' Books of the Year in 2021.

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