“Capsoul” by Alex Krasnov

Capsoul Alex Krasnov If you like numerology, this is the book for you. A mixture of science, science fiction, fantasy, and mysticism based on numerology, “Capsoul” is the story of a group of emigres from the former USSR to the US and Canada who design a project to create a kind of “immortality machine” that […]

“Afghan Tales” by Oleg Yermakov

In this collection of tales, in turns lyrical and brutal, Oleg Ermakov, probably Russia’s foremost writer on the Soviet war in Afghanistan, depicts the war from multiple points of view: a boy on a date a couple of days before he heads off to basic training, a raw recruit forced to commit an act he […]

“City Folk and Country Folk” by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya

In “City Folk and Country Folk,” not-particularly-rich minor gentry Erast Sergeyevich Ovcharov has returned to his home village to take a rest cure and drink whey. His own estate is not inhabitable, so he ends up renting a bathhouse from his neighbor, Nastasya Ivanovna Chulkova. This draws the both of them into a summer of […]

“Putin’s Russia” by Anna Politkovskaya

What can I say about Politkovskaya that I haven’t already said? Maybe that this book, written specifically for publication abroad, is perhaps the most foreigner-friendly of her works. Unlike “A Dirty War,” which is a compilation of her early articles on the second Chechen war, or later books such as “A Russian Diary,” which are […]

“A Russian Diary” by Anna Politkovskaya

Reading Politkovskaya is always a draining experience, and this, the last complete book of her writings and released after her death, is particularly challenging. It is organized in the form of a diary, with daily entries compiled of Politkovskaya’s notes, many of which later became articles–it includes, for example, the infamous interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, […]

“The State Counsellor” by Boris Akunin

State Counsellor Erast Petrovich Fandorin is called to action again! Terrorists have conducted a daring murder using his identity as a disguise, and both professional duty and personal pride demand that he find them and bring them to justice. But as he goes deeper into the world of revolutionaries, collaborators, and double agents, he finds […]

Free and Discount Books All Weekend!

So, I’m going to be taking part in a free and discount book promo event on Saturday (links to come as soon as they’re live), and in support of that I’ve made all my own books free or 99c. The Midnight Land Part One, the first book in my epic feminist Slavic fantasy trilogy in […]

“Is Journalism Worth Dying For?” by Anna Politkovskaya

While any Politkovskaya book is an emotionally intense experience, this one is particularly wrenching: it begins with articles she wrote during the final years of her life, including the articles that may have led to her murder, and ends with tributes–some heartfelt, some grudging–paid to her after her death by her friends, admirers, and enemies […]

“50 Writers: An Anthology of 20th-Century Russian Short Stories”

When teaching a survey class of Russian literature, one of the more vexing questions is which text to pick. You want to give students an idea of the breadth and richness of Russian literature, but not overwhelm them with impossible page counts. Of course they SHOULD read “And Quiet Flows the Don,” “Life and Fate,” […]

“Sankya” by Zakhar Prilepin

“People like you save yourselves by devouring Russia, and people like me–by devouring our own souls. Russia is nourished on the souls of her sons–she thrives on them. Not by the righteous ones, but by the cursed.” So says Sasha (“Sankya”) Tishin, the protagonist of “Sankya,” Zakhar Prilepin’s novel about “communofascist” Russian opposition group the […]