Short stories — Books — Marian Schwartz

Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories, by Mikhail Shishkin

Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories is the first English-language collection of short stories by Mikhail Shishkin, the most acclaimed contemporary author in Russia, including four stories that have been published in various English-language sources (Words Without Borders, Read Russia Anthology, Spolia, the Independent) and four previously untranslated stories (including two previously unpublished in any language). Shishkin was the first (and still the only) writer to win the three major Russian literary awards (the Russian Booker, National Bestseller, and Big Book awards). He is a master prose writer in the timeless, breathtakingly beautiful style of the greatest Russian writers, such as Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Bunin, and Boris Pasternak.

FictionMarian SchwartzOctober 25, 2015Mikhail Shishkin, Marian Schwartz, Leo Shtutin, Sylvia Maizell, Mariya Bashkatova, Deep Vellum, Post-Soviet, Short stories, Publication preview, Publication feature

White on Black, by Ruben Gallego

This is an extraordinary personal testament, the story of one boy's triumph in the face of impossible obstacles. Born with cerebral palsy in Moscow, Ruben Gallego was hidden away in Soviet state institutions by his maternal grandfather, the secretary general of the Spanish Communist Party in the 1960s. His was a boyhood spent in orphanages, hospitals, and old-age homes, a life of emotional deprivation and loss of human dignity. And yet, there is no self-pity here, no bitterness, only an unfailing regard for the truth. Gallego's story is one of neglect and mistreatment but also of shared small pleasures, of courage, of the power of the human will, and of a child's growing fascination with books and the worlds he finds in them.

FictionMarian SchwartzOctober 18, 2006Ruben Gallego, Marian Schwartz, Harcourt, Prize winner, Soviet-era, Short stories