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More copies of this ISBNeBook editionsThere Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Talesby Ludmila Petrushevskaya
Staff Pick
Regarded as one of Russia's most talented contemporary writers, Petrushevskaya's collection of vignettes is far beyond the macabre, with characters who desperately cling to the past while living discreetly painful lives. Their souls dangle on the precipice of vacancy, and an unwavering sadness consumes them. The worlds of life and those of death are often blurred, while giving no time or place in which the stories occur. Given all of that, I find much comfort in these tales, as many of them point to a central theme in life: that nothing is as it seems. Review-A-Day"Petrushevskaya's own brand of fairy tale straddles the line between reality and utopia, intermingling the dismal oppressiveness of life in a Moscow apartment with the joy that can be found in a children's home. 'I think of myself as a documentary writer,' she has said, 'collecting documents about people's lives and reworking them.'" Alexandra Schwartz, The Nation (read the entire Nation review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Vanishings and apparitions, nightmares and twists of fate, mysterious ailments and supernatural interventions haunt these stories by the Russian master Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, heir to the spellbinding tradition of Gogol and Poe. Blending the miraculous with the macabre, and leavened by a mischievous gallows humor, these bewitching tales are like nothing being written in Russia — or anywhere else in the world — today. Review:"Masterworks of economy and acuity, these brief, trenchant tales by Russian author and playwright Petrushevskaya, selected from her wide-ranging but little translated oeuvre over the past 30 years, offer an enticement to English readers to seek out more of her writing. The tales explore the inexplicable workings of fate, the supernatural, grief and madness, and range from adroit, straightforward narratives to bleak fantasy. Frequently on display are the decrepit values of the Soviet system, as in 'The New Family Robinson,' where a family tries to 'outsmart everyone' by relocating to a ramshackle cabin in the country. Domestic problems get powerful and tender treatment; in 'My Love,' a long-suffering wife and mother triumphs over her husband's desire for another woman. Darker material dominates the last section of the book, with tortuous stories, heavy symbolism and outright weirdness leading to strange and unexpected places. Petrushevskaya's bold, no-nonsense portrayals find fresh, arresting expression in this excellent translation." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Synopsis:The literary event of Halloween: a book of otherworldly power from Russia's preeminent contemporary fiction writer. Vanishings and aparitions, nightmares and twists of fate, mysterious ailments and supernatural interventions haunt these stories by the Russian master Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, heir to the spellbinding tradition of Gogol and Poe. Blending the miraculous with the macabre, and leavened by a mischievous gallows humor, these bewitching tales are like nothing being written in Russia — or anywhere else in the world-today. Synopsis:Vanishings and apparitions, nightmares and twists of fate, mysterious ailments and supernatural interventions haunt these stories by the Russian master Petrushevskaya, heir to the spellbinding tradition of Gogol and Poe. About the AuthorLudmilla Petrushevskaya is the award-winning author of more than fifteen collections of prose. The progenitor of the "women's fiction" movement in Russian letters, she is also a playwright whose work has been staged by leading theater companies all over the world. Keith Gessen is the author of All the Sad Young Literary Men and co-editor and founder of the literary magazine n+1. His translation of Voices from Chernobyl won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction in 2005. Anna Summers holds a doctorate in Slavic literature from Harvard. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
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