Homo Zapiens

The collapse of the Soviet Union has opened up a vast market ripe for capitalist exploitation. Everybody wants in on the action, but how do you sell things to a generation that grew up with just one brand of cola? Enter Tartarsky, the hero of Homo Zapiens, a lowly shop assistant who is hired as an advertising copywriter and discovers a hidden talent for devising homegrown alternatives to Western ads. Tartarsky - fueled by cocaine and hallucinogens - is propelled into a world of gangsters, spin doctors, and drug dealers, but as his fortunes soar, reality soon loosens its grip. Who is the boss - man or television? When advertisers talk about "twisting reality," do they mean it quite literally? And what exactly goes on at the Institute of Apiculture?