Bobo by Linor Goralik (2022)

The novel, written from the perspective of a teenage elephant named Bobo, is set in 2022, opening just after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops on February 24. Interlacing a brutally honest depiction of the Russian socio-political reality with subtle fantasy, the novel has the Turkish sultan give Bobo to the Russian tsar as a present (along with anthropomorphized animals, the terms “sultan” and “tsar” are among the very few differences between the novel’s world and ours). Setting off on March 1, 2022, the elephant will be traveling, first by ship and then on foot, from Istanbul to the tsar’s bunker in Orenburg, Russia. Watched by a Russian guard at the sultan’s palace, Bobo at first is filled with enthusiasm for his new homeland, about which he knows only what he has seen on Russian television. But gradually he starts doubting the propaganda fantasies about Russia’s “special operation to liberate Ukraine from Nazis.” 

The sixteen-year-old Bobo is not quite an adult yet; elephants live on a similar timeline to humans. Having been born in a beautiful garden at the sultan’s palace, all he has known is comfort and ease. However, his parents, captives from Africa, had been military elephants, so he grew up with tales of war glory. Initially, he is convinced that he will be sent to Ukraine to fight the “Nazis” as a war elephant and is greatly disappointed when this does not turn out to be the case. Still, he consoles himself that the tsar surely will want him to serve some great cause, which reconciles Bobo to the reality of the long and arduous journey. 

The sultan appoints two men to bring Bobo to Russia. One of them is Tolgat, Bobo’s “nanny” who had been taking care of him for eight years. A math professor from the Russian province who went to work with animals in Turkey (working at a private zoo pays considerably more than teaching math at a Russian university), Tolgat loves Bobo, and the feeling is mutual. Another member of the team, the elderly Aslan, is a veterinarian and taxidermist who wants Bobo dead so that he can stuff him and then convince the sultan to let him mummify deceased members of the sultan’s family. The group is also joined by Viktor Zorin, who had served in Chechnya as a military political instructor. Currently a propagandist and war-extolling poet, Zorin is responsible for the group’s security. Finally, there is the head of the group, Kuzma Kulinin. A diplomat and cunning politician, he has his moments of humanity and empathy. At the beginning, though, we mostly see him as the organizer of propaganda events along the way: a concert in support of Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine; a celebration for children forcibly removed from Ukraine and the Russian families who illegally adopted them; a patriotic fashion show; readings of Zorin’s poems. Both Kuzma and Zorin have their secret hopes of talking to the tsar in person after handing over the elephant. In Russia, the entourage is accompanied by two guards as well as by two horses as sentient as Bobo.