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Recommended by Natasha Perova: “The history of Russian literature is still being rewritten as new works and related documents surface from various archives, shedding new light on well-known facts and personalities and bringing overlooked classics to public notice. In this sense I was pleasantly surprised to find this new anthology of Russian literature presenting a pretty accurate and up-to-date picture of the two centuries of Russian letters – which is practically its entire history with its ‘golden’ and ‘silver’ periods.

Especially interesting and delightfully informative are the various introductions and notes – each chapter is preceded with a detailed note on the author and his/her age, there are notes on Russian names and ranks, recommendations on further reading, to say nothing of the brilliant general introduction like a fine overture to a complex opera. This thoughtful and well-written apparatus can even be read separately with the stories themselves serving as illustrations. But the stories, most of which are real gems, can be enjoyed as such with the introductions and notes tactfully providing the necessary context.”

What the publisher says: “From the reign of the Tsars in the early 19th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union and beyond, the short story has long occupied a central place in Russian culture. Included are pieces from many of the acknowledged masters of Russian literature – including Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn – alongside tales by long-suppressed figures such as the subversive Kryzhanowsky and the surrealist Shalamov. Whether written in reaction to the cruelty of the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy of communism or the torture of the prison camps, they offer a wonderfully wide-ranging and exciting representation of one of the most vital and enduring forms of Russian literature.”

About the author: Robert Chandler is a poet and translator. His recent books include a translation of Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Andrey Platonov’s masterpiece The Foundation Pit. He currently lives in west London with his wife, and is learning Farsi.