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Title: Monday Starts on Saturday
Author: Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Andrew Bromfield - translator, Adam Roberts - foreword
Narrator: Ramiz Monsef
Format: Unabridged
Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-01-17
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes
Genres: Fiction, Humor

Publisher's Summary:
Sasha, a young computer programmer from Leningrad, is driving north to meet some friends for a nature vacation. He picks up a couple of hitchhikers who persuade him to take a job at the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy.
The adventures Sasha has in the largely dysfunctional institute involve all sorts of magical beings - a wish-granting fish, a tree mermaid, a cat who can remember only the beginnings of stories, a dream-interpreting sofa, a motorcycle that can zoom into the imagined future, a lazy dog-sized mosquito - along with a variety of wizards (including Merlin), vampires, and officers.
First published in Russia in 1965, Monday Starts on Saturday has become the most popular Strugatsky novel in their homeland. Like the works of Gogol and Kafka, it tackles the nature of institutions - here focusing on one devoted to discovering and perfecting human happiness. By turns wildly imaginative, hilarious, and disturbing, Monday Starts on Saturday is a comic masterpiece by two of the world's greatest science-fiction writers.

Members Reviews:
A fun sort of clever
Outlandish and fast-paced, the amount of creativity required of the authors in this novel is nothing short of wonderful. Loved each page as much as the next and once I reached the end I found only that I wanted to know what happened afterward.

Not Quite "Soviet Hogwarts", But Not Far Off
Another reviewer expressed concern that a modern, non-Russian audience would find it difficult to understand this book. So for full disclosure, I have an MA in Russian history and wrote my thesis on Soviet science, specifically computing in the 1960s. I am one of those strange human beings who knew what a BESM was without looking it up. The book came recommended by a Russian friend who herself studied computers in the USSR. I've also been reading Russian fairy tales since I was a child, which I would consider the more useful background knowledge for getting the most out of "Monday Starts on Saturday". So for me this book was a wonderful romp filled with obscure easter eggs, the sort of thing that makes a lifelong penchant for acquiring random knowledge about Russia suddenly pay off.
But as a whole I think there's plenty here to interest someone with little to no background. Even if you don't know much about Russian folklore or Soviet science, I think many readers will be able to get a sense of those things as they go. If you're the kind of person who has heard of the Strugatskys and is considering one of their books, you will probably enjoy the vampires playing cards, the pretentious wanking of lead scientist Vybegallo, and the hilarious image of Koshchei the Deathless sitting in his cell with a photo of "either Goldwater or McCarthy". The scene where Privalov tries to make himself breakfast made me laugh out loud, and when I read it to my husband, so did he. So I'm betting you will, too. If you're really concerned, pick up a book of Russian fairy tales and find out what the deal is with the hut on chicken legs and that storytelling cat, but then by all means give "Monday Starts on Saturday" a try.

Might be a challenge for a modern reader
I am somewhat surprised that the publisher chose this particular book for translation.