Patrick deWitt meets Catch 22, when a guileless young boy gets mixed up in Stalin's inner circle.
There are certain things that Yuri Zipit knows: 1. That being official food-taster for the Great Leader of the Soviet Union requires him to drink too much vodka for a twelve-year-old. 2. That you do not have to be an Elephantologist to see that the Great Leader is dying. 3. Yuri's father is somewhere here in the Dacha. 4. It's a crime to love your family more than you love Socialism, the Party or the Republic. 5. That, because of his damaged mind, everyone thinks Yuri is a fool. But Yuri isn't. He sits quietly through excessive state dinners and witnesses it all-betrayals, body doubles, buffoonery. He's starting to get the hang of this politics thing, but there's so much to learn. Who knew that a man could be in five places at once? That someone could break your nose as a sign of friendship? That people could be disinvented?
