Xstabeth

2022 Longlist

In St Petersburg, Russia, Aneliya is torn between the love of her father and her father’s best friend. Her father dreams of becoming a great musician but suffers with a naiveté that means he will never be taken seriously. Her father’s best friend has a penchant for vodka, strip clubs and moral philosophy.

When an angelic presence named Xstabeth enters their lives – a presence who simultaneously fulfils and disappears those she touches – Aneliya and her father’s world is transformed.
Moving from Russia to St Andrews, Scotland, Xstabeth tackles the metaphysics of golf, the mindset of classic Russian novels and the power of art and music to re-wire reality.

About the Author/Translator

David Keenan is the author of four critically-acclaimed novels; the cult classic This is Memorial Device, which won the London Magazine Prize; For the Good Times, which won the Gordon Burn Prize; The Towers The Fields The Transmitters and Xstabeth. He lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

Librarian’s Comments

Xstabeth is the third novel of David Keenan. It is like his previous novel deeply related to the world of music: His most gnostic work with weird loops and a torrential rhythm that looks at the same time at the 19th Russian novelists and at the mystic power of music. Biblioteca Vila de Gràcia, Spain