Disco Elysium novel Sacred and Terrible Air has finally been translated

You woke up this morning and thought to yourself, “Time to go to work in the shit factory!” Well, you were wrong. Today, the star-and-antlers flies overhead, because Sacred and Terrible Air, the novel by Disco Elysium’s lead designer and writer Robert Kurvitz that shares its setting, has been made available in English and in full at last. Albeit, unofficially.

Sacred and Terrible Air was first published in Estonian in 2013, and featured art by Aleksander Rostov, designer and art director on Disco Elysium. “It sold 1,000 copies,” Kurvitz once told Edge Magazine (opens in new tab). “So after that I succumbed to deep alcoholism.” Fortunately, the videogame was a little more successful, which resulted in plans to translate it into English. However, the announced 2020 release window passed without comment. Now, with Kurvitz and Rostov ousted from ZA/UM and, last we heard, declaring their intent to continue pursuing legal options, it seems less likely than ever that an official English release will appear.