The fictionalized biography of the Russian inventor Leon Theremin

Born under the czar Nicholas II, Leon Theremin was a soldier in the Red Army, met Lenin, left to conquer the US, found fame and fortune…yet ended up in a goulag. He later died in 1993.

In 1920, this Russian engineer of great genius invented an avant-garde musical instrument, the only one that can be played without actually touching it: the theremin. By merely moving one’s hands, the electricity begins to sing producing a strange sound that seems to come from another world. From Hitchcock to the Beach Boys, from electronic music to Neil Armstrong, a wide range of 20th century pop culture will succumb to the charms of the enchanting theremin.

In The Theremin Fugue, Leon is the hero of the novel of his life — his glorious tours in Europe and America at the end of the 1920s, the splendor of his life in New York and his failed relationship in the shadow of the Great Depression.

Despite the success of his invention, nobody in the high echelons of the Soviet Union will forget to remind him of his mission in America. He veered a little too far off course and that’s unacceptable.

Emmanuel Villin was born in 1976. He is the author of Sporting Club (prix Écrire la Ville 2019) and of Microfilm published by Asphalte éditions. He lives in Paris.