The Bison

Author: Daniil Granin

In one of his deepest and most contemplative novels, Daniil Granin recounts the biography of the Russian geneticist Nikolai Timofeev-Ressovsky, known by his nickname "the Bison," who embodied a rare model of both a free intellectual and a tenacious adventurer. Through a memoir-like narrative that blends family tales with science, tribal myths with ideological polemics, Granin paints a portrait of a scientific rebel, a man who lived on the fringes, was exiled, and then returned with an irresistible memory.
The novel is not merely the biography of a biologist, but a philosophical journey into the fate of the individual within the state machine, and his struggle with authority, with time, and with submission. The character of "The Bison" is a profound metaphor for a rare and unique figure: a man whose stature belongs to ancient times, but whose spirit is decades ahead of his era.