And Time Was No More: Essential Stories and Memories, by Teffi
Edited and annotated by Robert Chandler Review by Karen Langley The last decade or so has seen a resurgence of interest in Russian émigré writing with a host of forgotten…
An Evening with Claire by Gaito Gazdanov
Translated by Bryan Karetnyk Review by Karen Langley Recent years have seen an upturn of interest in Russian émigré authors from the 20th century; there were, of course, famous names…
One Billion Years to the End of the World by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Translated by Antonina W. Bouis Reviewed by Karen Langley Science fiction writing often gets a bad press; dismissed as lightweight genre writing, mocked for some of the horrendous cover art…
Fandango and Other Stories by Alexander Grin
Translated by Bryan Karetnyk Reviewed by Karen Langley Recent years have seen a wave of wonderful new translations of ‘lost’ Russian authors of the 19th and 20th century. Some have…
Necropolis by Vladislav Khodasevich
Translated by Sarah Vitali Review by Karen Langley, The Russian Library series from Columbia University Press has thrown up some marvellous treasures of literature from Russia, several of which I’ve…
Death of the Vazir-Mukhtar by Yuri Tynianov
Translated by Susan Causey, Translation editor Vera Tsareva-Brauner Review by Karen Langley Recent years have seen a large number of works by Russian authors newly translated into the English language;…
Sentimental Tales by Mikhail Zoshchenko
Translated by Boris Dralyuk Review by Karen Langley Russian satirical writing has a rich heritage, stretching all the way back to the time of Catherine the Great and continuing into…
The Aviator by Eugene Vodolazkin
Translated by Lisa Hayden Reviewed by Karen Langley You awake in a hospital bed. You have no memory of who you are or how you came to be there, apart…
The Golovlevs by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin
Translated by I.P. Foote Review by Karen Langley Back in SNB #13 I reviewed “The History of a Town” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, one of the great Russian satirists of the 19th…
The Russian Soul: Selections from A Writer’s Diary by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Introduced by Rosamund Bartlett Translated by Kenneth Lantz / Olga Shartse Reviewed by Karen Langley Notting Hill Editions will probably need no introduction to readers of Shiny New Books. The…
City Folk and Country Folk by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya
Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov Reviewed by Karen Langley If asked to name any of the great Russian writers of the 19th century, most Anglophone readers would probably come up…
Russian Émigré Short Stories from Bunin to Yanovsky, edited by Bryan Karetnyk
Reviewed by Karen Langley In the anniversary year of the 1917 Russian Revolution a number of books have been issued which look at that tumultuous event and its effect on…
Rapture by Iliazd
Translated by Thomas J. Kitson Reviewed by Karen Langley The early 20th century was a time of great change and upheaval; it produced wars and revolutions, but also a great…
The History of a Town by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin
Translated by I.P. Foote Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian literature has long had a tradition of satire stretching all the way back to Gogol, one of its best exponents. However,…
Rasputin and Other Ironies by Teffi
Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Rose France Reviewed by Karen Langley One of my highlights from 2014 was the discovery of the writings of the…
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Dora O’Brien Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky is best known in the west for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Demons/Devils/The Possessed and…
Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi
Translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Irina Steinberg Reviewed by Karen Langley The Russian Revolution and ensuing Civil War were amongst the most brutal conflicts of…
The Flight by Gaito Gazdanov
Translated by Bryan Karetnyk Reviewed by Karen Langley As well as being the driving force behind the Stefan Zweig revival, Pushkin Press has also done fans of Russian authors a…
The Prank: The Best of Young Chekhov, by Anton Chekhov
Translated by Maria Bloshteyn Reviewed by Karen Langley The art of the short story is a difficult one, and many authors never attain the dizzy heights of a tale told…
The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov
Translated by Andrew Bromfield Reviewed by Karen Langley We all believe in the transformative power of literature; however, what would happen if books really did change us in dramatic ways, bringing strength…
In the Twilight by Anton Chekhov
Translated by Hugh Aplin Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian author Anton Chekhov, although possibly best known for his plays like The Cherry Orchard, is also the acknowledged master of the short…
Notes on a Cuff by Mikhail Bulgakov
Translated by Roger Cockrell Reviewed by Karen Langley When Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov’s magnum opus The Master and Margarita was finally published, decades after his death, it took the literary world by…
The Same Old Story by Ivan Goncharov
Translated by Stephen Pearl Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian author Ivan Goncharov is known to most Anglophone readers for his novel Oblomov; indeed, with that book he created a stereotype who’s…
The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol
Translated by Anna Summers Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian author Nikolai Gogol, best known for satirical works like The Nose and Dead Souls, is not a name you would automatically connect with a…
- 1
- 2