Synopses & Reviews
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
Unpredictable, poignant, and often comic, the eight moving stories that make up The Red Passport investigate the impossible hopes and tragic setbacks of natives and foreigners alike in post-Soviet Russia. From "My Mother's Garden," the parable of an old woman who refuses to accept the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, to "The Young People of Moscow," which describes an extraordinary day in the life of an aging couple selling antiquated Soviet poetry in an underground bazaar, these intricately woven narratives provide unforgettable slices of a Russia that is at once both exotic and disconcertingly familiar.
Synopsis
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
Unpredictable, poignant, and often comic, the eight moving stories that make up The Red Passport investigate the impossible hopes and tragic setbacks of natives and foreigners alike in post-Soviet Russia. From "My Mother's Garden," the parable of an old woman who refuses to accept the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, to "The Young People of Moscow," which describes an extraordinary day in the life of an aging couple selling antiquated Soviet poetry in an underground bazaar, these intricately woven narratives provide unforgettable slices of a Russia that is at once both exotic and disconcertingly familiar.
Synopsis
A collection of short works set in post-Communist Russia includes "My Mother's Garden," in which an elderly woman living near Chernobyl is frustrated about her inability to eat local vegetation; "Our American," in which a boy witnesses an older sibling's romance with an American; and "The Young People of Moscow," in which an aging couple sells Soviet poetry in an underground bazaar. A first collection. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.
About the Author
Katherine Shonk was born in Chicago and lives in Evanston, Illinois. Her stories have appeared in Tin House, Story Quarterly, and American Short Fiction, and have been reprinted in Best American Short Stories.