An experimental non-fiction work that highlights the so-called "Undesirables" of recent history, who are compelled to testify and face misfortune.

The hybrid premiere of Daniel Elkind, "The Chizhevsky Illuminator," is an experimental non-fiction piece that narrates the story of A.L. Chizhevsky, the inventor and father of the field of heliobiology, who – like his hero Galileo – was punished for daring to suggest that human history revolves around the Sun.

This broad historical narrative stages a confrontation between groups of American anarchists, students of Bab in 19th-century Persia, Jewish baseball players, and the peculiar quest to develop giant chickens.

Within it, one finds the story of the last Soviet generation ("Generation Tetris") and its dreams and illusions. In biographical chapters recalling his experience as a refugee from Soviet Russia, Elkind traces the impacts of Emma Goldman’s exile and other political Undesirables from America to their "homeland" in 1919, during a time of full revolution.

The result of this literary experimentation is a foolish and deeply personal exploration of what it means to record and remember in today’s over-saturated world, where all the stories we tell ourselves have been overturned.

Pages: 250, Year of Publication: 0819, Dimensions: 13x13cm