Shortlisted for Russia's national bestseller prize and translated into twelve languages, Give Me marks the debut of a literary wunderkind, a gifted writer with a fine-tuned ear and unforgettable voice. The stories in Give Me are bracingly authentic and deeply felt — vibrant snapshots colored by vodka, drugs, and young love that capture life at a certain age in a specific part of the world while reflecting the universal emotions of a generation. Too young to identify with life in the Soviet era, the frank, funny, appealingly tough characters in Give Me are forced to find their identities in the chaotic atmosphere of a country recovering from systemic collapse. They reach out to each other in ways that are sometimes affectionate, sometimes cruel, and always desperate for connection.

A young soldier on leave from the Chechen war laments the meaninglessness of civilian life — "all that goddamned self-expression" — while his girlfriend ponders the elegant arch of her best friend's eyebrows; a teacher at a summer camp is appalled, disgusted, and frightened by her out-of-control charges and the retribution she could suffer at the hands of their powerful parents; love and loyalty become entangled as a young woman sleeps with friends of her unattainable object of desire to feel closer to him; a suicidal teenager finds salvation in the unlikely duo of a beefy security guard and his Rottweiler; the object of a university student's crush unknowingly pushes her buttons from afar when he neglects to return her anonymous love notes; and Death visits an Internet chat room after politely accepting the offer of a cup of tea.

Full of electricity, humor, controversy, and above all, humanity, these pitch-perfect stories put to use the possibilities of language and perception to give a glimpse of Russia's youth and their struggle to grow up, find their way, and, ultimately, love.

"When Russian student Denezhkina initially published this brash, frenetic collection (her first effort) on the Internet, she was 19, and her partially autobiographical stories are unvarnished portrayals of teenage life in Russia. Breezily grim episodes — two young teenagers having bewildered first-time sex at summer camp; a suicide attempt on a lonely New Year's Eve; numerous drug and alcohol-blurred house parties — are recounted with the candor and indifference of adolescence. The intended edginess is dulled by the indistinct characters, most of whom suffer from indistinguishable angst and are casually dismissive of anyone uncool ('Natashka doesn't like anyone much on principle.... She only likes musicians, stars'). The best stories are short and simple, like 'Remote Feelings,' a focused, thoughtful tale about two university students who exchange love notes. Elsewhere, brutal beatings alternate with empty (or unsubstantiated) 'I love you's. The collection undeniably evokes the disorienting and melodramatic world of young adulthood, though the tonally underdeveloped and thematically fuzzy writing prevents Denezhkina's subjects from ever quite coming into sharp focus. Agent, Sally Wofford-Girand. (Feb.) Forecast: It's unlikely that Denezhkina will be the hit here that she is in Russia — at home, she is already promoting a new anthology of writers, called Denezhkina & Co. — but her association with respected translator Bromfield (who has also translated Victor Pelevin) should help assure review coverage." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"High-quality youth literature, with a certain influence of Salinger and Hemingway."

-- Expert (Russia)

"Denezhkina certainly writes like someone vying for the plumes of an enfant terrible: heroin, random sex, cannibalism, the Verve, torture. But she also writes about unalloyed romanticism, physical bliss, and, with acute sensitivity, about the magical morbidity, awkwardness and prickly self-awareness of adolescence."

-- The Observer (UK)

"Irina is the spokeswoman of the suburbs, the heroine of a generation whose parents were orphaned by socialism. She has learned a harsh and pitiless version of capitalism: 'No one owes anybody anything' is the obsessive mantra of her characters."

-- La Stampa (Italy)

"The language alone is so raucous — and to my ear authentically translated — that it poisons the atmosphere this generation breathes. There's something of an Ian McEwan-style debut here, by a writer who could move in any direction."

-- The Independent (UK)

contents

give me!

valerochka

a song for the lovers

vasya and the green men

remote feelings

lyokha the rottweiler

my beautiful ann

postscript

death in the chat room

you and me

isupov