‘If you stare at the dead for too long, they’ll start talking to you.’ The events of Alexey Polyarinov’s novel unfold in a world where, thirty years after a catastrophe, ‘cadavers’—frozen figures of dead children—have appeared across the country. The protagonists, Matvey and Dasha, set out on an expedition through the south to study these mysterious anomalies. Along the way, they discover how...

In the early 1920s, the poet and prose writer Konstantin Vaginov was a member of Gumilev’s ‘Guild of Poets,’ followed by stints in the literary groups ‘The Islanders’ and ‘The Ring of Poets,’ and eventually the poetry section of OBERIU. He authored four books of remarkable poetry and four novels; the first of these—*Goat Song*—earned Vaginov a reputation as a subtle, witty, and highly...