One of America’s great contemporary writers—called “a virtuoso of the dismal comedy of Soviet life” by the New York Times—serves up tales at once hair-raising, comic, and fabulous. From a nuclear power plant worker to the first cosmonaut, this collection offers a moving and kaleidoscopic portrait of the Russian people through a century of turbulent history.
These stories mine a vast terrain of geography and metaphor, sketching portraits of people caught in the seismic collision of cultures, be they real, hallucinated, dreamed, or desired. Witty and fantastical, hip and wise, this first collection by a major talent brings wonder and imagination into the realm of experience.
