"Sense will be of interest to the English-speaking reader for its intimate vision of the world of a confused adolescent in a threatening and dangerous world. This young and courageous author has a sense of irony and humor and manages to distance himself from his hero's social preoccupations and hyperbole. The book's appeal is in its youthful immediacy."Arch Tait
"One is infected with the author's energy and his passionate aspiration to get some sense into his life, to act, to live for the sake of something."Literary Russia
"This Chechen boy created a portrait of dissident youth in the best traditions of Tolstoy and Turgenev."Eduard Limonov
Arslan Khasavov is the 2009 Debut Prize winner. He works for the BBC Russian service as a columnist on Northern Caucasus.
Arch Tait, a recently retired professor of Russian literature, has many successful translations to his name, including books by Anna Politkovskaya and Ludmila Ulitskaya.
