Pretender to the Throne - Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin

This hilarious novel following the continuing adventures of Ivan Chonkin, a simple peasant who has been arrested as a traitor after spending World War II happily tending a garden. In this sequel to The Extraordinary Life and Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, Vladimir Voinovich ridicules everything sacred to the Soviet Union--the army, the justice system, the press, and Stalin himself--in a refreshing combination of dissident conscience and universal humor.

"[Chonkin's] stupidity is his honor and his salvation. People keep falling on him as if he were a blunt sword. Mr. Voinovich's humor . . . is a very broad and rather welcome antidote to the apocalyptic Solzhenitsyn and the cynical Zinoviev." --New York Times

"[Voinovich] is unique among literary dissidents in his ability to highlight the many shortcomings and paradoxes of the Soviet system without engaging in the stridency and bitterness of writers such as Solzhenitsyn." --Nation