Roadside Picnic

Hearing of the death of Stanislaw Lem reminded me of another book-I-haven't-read-yet, although it's not one of his. Lem was most famous for writing Solaris which was made into a classic Russian science-fiction film in 1971, and a not-so classic American science-fiction film, starring George Clooney, in 2002. I haven't seen the Clooney version, and the only thing I remember about the Russian film was a sleep-inducing sequence in which someone was driving along a motorway at night for ages and ages. However, another film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky made a haunting impression on me, and that film - Stalker - was based on a book I haven't read yet because it's so rare that I've never come across a copy:

Roadside Picnic

by

Arkady & Boris Strugatsky