<P>From the man Arturo Pèrez-Reverte has called "the most talented young Russian author" comes this extraordinary family saga, a journey into the depths of the human soul. <i>The Rounddance of Water </i>is an intricate portrait of three generations of a large family, but in this story there is no division into primary and secondary characters: each individual fate bears significant weight and runs into the bloody river of the twentieth century. The novel drifts between years, tones, and styles, and the range of its influences is overwhelming: from Rudyard Kipling through Andrei Platonov and Daniil Kharms, from gangster movies to anime.</P>