Böcker i Russian Literature Series-serien

This collection of beautifully written and entertaining literary essays by a wide range of Russian writers--young and old, funny and somber, angry and celebratory, many being translated for the first time--offers U.S. readers a unique chance to "see ourselves as others see us," to perhaps question how the American dream stands up to the American reality, and to experience the wit and generosity of today's Russian writers.

"e;Myths do not flow through the pipes of history,"e; writes Viktor Shklovsky, "e;they change and splinter, they contrast and refute one another. The similar turns out to be dissimilar."e; Published in Moscow in 1970 and appearing in English translation for the first time, Bowstring is a seminal work, in which Shklovsky redefines estrangement (ostranenie) as a device of the literary comparatist-the "e;person out of place,"e; who has turned up in a period where he does not belong and who must search for meaning with a strained sensibility. As Shklovsky experiments with different genres, employing a technique of textual montage, he mixes autobiography, biography, memoir, history, and literary criticism in a book that boldly refutes mechanical repetition, mediocrity, and cultural parochialism in the name of art that dares to be different and innovative. Bowstring is a brilliant and provocative book that spares no one in its unapologetic project to free art from conventionality.

Prague is a place where murders happen, and it takes an English-speaking Russian expat with a strong antipathy for the city and its inhabitants to solve the mystery . . . or maybe not. As the plots thicken, the two narrators of Kirill Kobrin's ten short stories gradually merge into a single hazy, undefined personality.

The novel that reportedly caused a walkout upon publication, this grotesque, absurdist work by Russia's de Sade follows four individuals set upon a common goal of destruction and violence.

"Grotesque, deconstructive, and absolutely genius, Vladimir Sorokin's short story collection Dispatches from the District Committee is a revelatory, offbeat portrait of Soviet life beyond the propaganda and state-sponsored realism. Celebrated-and censored-for its political satire, literary irreverence, and provocative themes, his work has been recognized across the world for its scathing, darkly humorous commentary on political and cultural oppression in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. Dispatches from the District Committee brings together stories from Sorokin's incendiary 1992 collection The First Subotnik/My First Working Saturday. Skillfully translated by Max Lawton, these stories remain subversive classics, and increasingly relevant in a post-truth information age"--