Every week we'll publish a short book review. We believe literature can provide a necessary perspective for today's world. New releases or old ones, fiction or nonfiction—in this section, you'll find books we want to share with you because we consider them important.
Daniel Mason "North Woods"
"The tunnels created by bark beetles are truly masterpieces. What can they be compared to? To the carvings of the Vikings? To the facial tattoos of the peoples of Oceania? To a giant centipede?"
Mo Yan "Death Smells Like Sandalwood"
"The Emperor has issued a decree: he wants us, the Ministry of Punishments, to propose a special execution to teach a lesson to the dignitary who stole a gun... We cannot fail to justify the Emperor's trust, much less undermine the reputation of our ministry."
Vera Bogdanova, "Pavel Zhang and Other River Creatures"
"Pasha was depicted looking worried, half-turned, just like in the cover image of the viral video that went viral this spring. At the bottom, they always added "NO CHIPS" or "NO SURVEILLANCE."
Paul Lynch "Song of the Prophet"
"It's a feeling of living in a different country now, a sense of looming chaos, ready to swallow them all in its maw. Eilish returns to the kitchen, feeling angry..."
Bulat Okudzhava's "A Date with Bonaparte"
"...Everything comes to an end: empires perish, noble impulses fade, dazzling hopes turn into farce, great plans into a heap of dung; the tombs of kings remain, retribution awaits the victor."
Viktor Astafyev, "Cursed and Killed"
“Grasping each other, people, both wounded and untouched by bullets, went under the water in bundles; the river bulged, bubbled, shook with human convulsions, foamed with red breakers.”
Roberto Carnero, "Pasolini: Dying for Ideas"
“Please note that the text of the book has been shortened in accordance with Federal Law 478.”
Yana Wagner "Tunnel"
“Already on the second lap, right in the middle of the empty passage between the sleeping rows, where in the cars on both sides people sat and lay motionless, like dead people, in uncomfortable positions, it seemed to the senior lieutenant, stupefied by the heat and lack of sleep...
Liu Cixin, "The Three-Body Problem"
"This means that there are no laws of physics that hold true everywhere in the universe, which in turn means... that physics doesn't exist," Wang said, turning away from...
Anna Starobinets “Silver Asholotl”
"A lot can change in three months. Axolotl turns into a fish. The mother, who hates the father, asks him to come."
Alexander Stesin "New York Bypass"
Alexander Stesin, "New York Bypass," Moscow: NLO, 2024. This book has already been reprinted several times and recently saw another. In "New York Bypass," physician, poet, and novelist Alexander Stesin recounts his experience…
Maxim Osipov, "It's a Sin to Complain"
"A man with heart failure, unless his wife is at his side, is doomed to die soon. This idiocy begins in adolescence and then progresses."
Sayaka Murata "Ceremony of Life"
"Particles of Yamamoto were spreading across the world—and, settling in other people's stomachs, they were transformed into the energy of their lives. The very thought of this delighted me."
Abraham Verghese, "The Testament of Water"
"The past is hazy, like ghostly, faded ink, crumbling paper. Among the family's founders are slave traders, a couple of murderers, and an apostate priest named Patrose..."
Leonid Aronzon. Collected Works
"In a cloudy park, draw my name in the sand, as if by candlelight, and live until summer to weave wreaths that the stream will carry away."
Oleg Lekmanov, "Giraffe Dreams of Clouds"
"I don't drink wine, I don't smoke tobacco, But I have fifteen dogs. I get up early in the morning - my watch and jacket bring fifteen dogs to the bed."
Ian McEwan "Exercise"
He felt a surge of unknown power, heard a murmur of delight, prompting him to declare to her that he had practiced the piano for a total of three hours over the past week. In fact, he had barely practiced, playing for about three minutes…
Ekaterina Manoylo, "The Wind Blows Away Dead Leaves"
"And even though the dream came true, with her father dead, there was no sense of liberation. This wasn't how she'd imagined this escape when she'd been following the Khachaturyan case. The sisters became Izya's idols..."
Michel Houellebecq's "Elementary Particles"
By eleven o'clock, the heat began to intensify. Returning home, Michel undressed completely and lay down. For the next three weeks, he barely moved. Apparently, like a fish, occasionally poking its head out of the water...
Vladimir Sorokin "The Swim"
“A long column of muscular naked people, lined up on the City embankment, swayed and came to life with a barely noticeable movement: a thousand hands rushed to a thousand shaved temples, snatched a thousand matches from behind their ears and struck them…
Mayakovsky/Lissitzky "For the Voice"
"Mayakovsky's voice began to be perceived by his contemporaries as a kind of mythologem, but the poet himself did not stop singing his own voice even when the romantic impulse of the Revolution was left behind..."
Alexey Polyarinov "Cadavres"
"The cadaver stood motionless in the tall grass. It wasn't easy to find; none of the locals knew exactly where it was, and it seemed strange: a dead body standing here in a field…"
Gabriel García Márquez's "See You in August"
“Every year on the sixteenth of August she arrived at the same hour, in the same car, bought flowers from the same vendor and brought them to the grave…
Alexey Salnikov "Occulttrager"
"By nature, angels can't stay on earth for very long. Perhaps they lack vitamins. Or maybe the environment is too toxic, God knows. A day or two—and then they're done."
Alla Gorbunova, "Your Tin Can Is Broken"
"The main thing that became clear from talking to Elena is that everything people consider true is a profound and vile lie. Everything I've been taught my whole life has turned out to be a lie. There's no point in telling you what..."
Leonid Yuzefovich "The Campaign to Bar-Khoto"
“I endured many inconveniences here, suffered from the heat, cold and bad water, got lice, was covered in boils, suffered from dysentery, but never and nowhere did I feel freer than in Mongolia.”