Asas by Mikhail Kuzmin

A fundamental text in the history of queer literature, Asas (English: Wings; Russian: Крылья) is the first Russian novel to openly address homosexuality.

With the air of a formative novel, the plot has as its protagonist the young Ivan Smúrov, or Vánia, who leaves the countryside to study in Saint Petersburg, where he goes to live with a tutor’s family and is introduced into a cultured upper-class environment. In it, Stroop stands out, a refined and easy-going man, who does not hide the nature of his relationship with other men and will become a kind of mentor, at the same time feared and admired by the boy.

This project was inspired by the adornments, stained glass, objects and tiles of traditional Russian baths (banyas), an environment frequented by characters in the novel and by the author himself, Mikhail Kuzmin. The red background is reminiscent of Russian imperial theaters, frequented by artists from the country’s Silver Age. The silver elements connect with an eccentric description of Kuzmin: “A ‘silver’ man”, according to Marina Tsvetáieva. The folding screen on the cover evokes the subtlety of the homoerotic representations of Asas, in which everything happens in the details and small gestures, revealing or masking the characters’ passions.

This limited and exclusive edition of Asas uses ToY by Swiss designer Philipp Herrmann (for the titles and cover) and FF More by Polish designer Łukasz Dziedzic (for the main text).

Asas was published by Editora Carambaia.