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A neglected masterpiece by Russian science fiction greats Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, who thought of it as their "most complete and important work," The Snail on the Slope disappeared almost immediately after it was first published in a small mass-market edition in the United States in 1980. In the meantime, however, it went through twenty-seven editions in fifteen other countries, making it one of the Strugatsky brothers' most popular works worldwide, along with Roadside Picnic and Hard to Be a God. Now, in a stunning new translation, this tour de force is ready to be introduced to a new generation of American readers. The novel takes place in two worlds. One is the Administration, an institution run by a surreal, Kafkaesque bureaucracy whose aim is to govern the forest below.