The Inhabited Island by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky [originally translated from the Russian in 1977 as Prisoners of Power; this new translation is of the uncensored version] translated by Andrew Bromfield Chicago Review Press February 4, 2020 416 pages This novel from the Strugatskys’ Noon Universe is not just about a space traveler from Earth … Continue reading Speculative Fiction in Translation: The Inhabited Island
Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko translated from the Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey HarperVoyager November 13, 2018 416 pages Vita Nostra is a remarkable example of dark philosophical fantasy and psychological horror. Its simultaneous manipulation of both the reader’s and the main character’s sense of reality is so subtle and even insidious that, … Continue reading Speculative Fiction in Translation: Vita Nostra
“рукописи не горят.” – “Manuscripts don’t burn.” Mikhail Bulgakov’s extraordinary socio-political satire THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, in which Satan (in disguise) and his demonic cat wreak havoc among Moscow’s literary elite, was first published in book form in 1967. Bulgakov wrote the novel during the Stalinist repression of 1930s Russia and was still revising it … Continue reading TRANSLATORS ASSOCIATION – 60 YEARS OF CLASSIC TRANSLATIONS: The Master and Margarita (1967)
Although it contains passages written in the 1910s and 1920s, Doctor Zhivago was not completed until 1956. The novel was submitted to the literary journal Novy Mir ("Новый Мир"). However, the editors rejected Pasternak's novel because of its implicit rejection of socialist realism. The author, like Zhivago, showed more concern for the welfare of individuals … Continue reading International Banned Book: Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Nilufar Sharipova's short story collection You've Got Grave Issues depicts hilarious snapshots of the 'Municipal Cemetery Department' and its employees, hence the title's double entendre. You've Got Grave Issues speaks to the sense of control humans believe we wield over our lives. An array of masterfully rendered characters demonstrate the anxieties, concerns, and thrills we … Continue reading Review: You’ve Got Grave Issues by Nilufar Sharipova
The Literary Man Rostislav Illarionovich Buning, the magnificent pedagogue and English literature expert, has died. This literary man was the kind of bon vivant you can’t find anymore. He was always dressed to the nines: a silk scarf around his neck, a flower in his buttonhole… and his manners! They just don’t make gentlemen like … Continue reading Excerpt: You’ve Got Grave Issues by Nilufar Sharipova
You’ve Got Grave Issues is a collection of short, humorous stories unified by a single theme: everyday life in the cemetery. The events described take place in the Soviet and early post-Soviet period. The stories are observations of people whose lives are inextricably linked to the cemetery. They work, live, and pray there. Every single … Continue reading Self-Published Title Pick: You’ve Got Grave Issues by Nilufar Sharipova
Mariam Petrosyan's award-winning epic The Gray House is a sprawling yarn of a story, a coming-of-age tale wrapped up in threads of magical realism and mystery. The eponymous House is a boarding school for disabled children and teenagers, which sits on the outskirts of town, ignored by the people of the Outsides. Its residents, a … Continue reading REVIEW: The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan
Few socio-political shifts have seen such immediate, impassioned literary attention as the events that shook Russia in 1917. One hundred years have passed, yet many of the poems and stories wrung from this historic moment remain as able to speak to us as they were a century ago. In 1917: Stories and Poems from the … Continue reading In ‘1917,’ the Feverish Poetry of Russia’s Revolutions
Day after day the Russian asylum-seekers sit across from the interpreter and Peter—the Swiss officers who guard the gates to paradise—and tell of the atrocities they’ve suffered, or that they’ve invented, or heard from someone else. These stories of escape, war, and violence intermingle with the interpreter’s own reading: a history of an ancient Persian … Continue reading Title Pick: Maidenhair by Mikhail Shiskin
