The absurdly brilliant far-future satire from ';the Borges of scientific culture' (Time). The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying blightpapyralysishas obliterated much of the planet's written history. Fortunately, these rare memoirs, preserved for centuries in a volcanic rock, record the strange life of a man trapped in a hermetically sealed underground community… From the Kafka Prizewinning author of Solaris, this is an entertaining and thought-provoking blend of politics, philosophy, humor, and science fiction. Translated by Michael Kandel and Christine Rose