Motanka is a collection of short fiction by Ukrainian writers about women's experiences of war and the incredible powers that manifest themselves in special circumstances. Fantasy, magical realism, steampunk, and even post-apocalypse; events that take place both in ancient times and in the days of modern war, in recognizable worlds or completely fantastic reality. These are twelve stories about...

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

Northern Europe, late 2020s. Russia, engulfed in civil war, continues to send refugees. Former employees of Russia's main propaganda factory and people who suffered because of them are fleeing the new 'Moscow government' and militia gangs. New migrants are predictably not welcome abroad, and some of them are being hunted down. Prose writer and journalist Konstantin Zarubin (Tales of L-skikh...

July 2014, Donbass. A student named Zhanna returns to her native mining village from Kharkov to look after her dying mother. At the same time, their young neighbor nicknamed Valet and an elderly secret service officer named Korol arrive from Moscow - both on assignment from the Russian military command. Something terrible and irreparable is about to happen. But this is not the first time that...

'Pets' by Zhenya Berkovich is a prison fairy tale; everything told in it is the pure truth, but all the characters are fictitious and the coincidences are accidental. The action takes place in Tyurmyau, where cats, rats, dogs, cockroaches, a crow and, of course, people have to get along, but this is not a story about people. The main character, Volny Kotan, goes through a series of tests to...

In one of the books, Aleksandr Etoev said of the city in which he was born: 'Living almost desperate in it, I changed so many districts, streets, houses, apartments that the whole city became my eternal home. Everywhere I go, on any bench in any square, garden I sit down, poplars, garden grates, fountains, even urns and lanterns smile at me, they feel my local, post-war Leningrader in me, they...

Little Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in Ukraine's Grey Zone, the no-man's-land between loyalist and separatist forces. Thanks to the lukewarm war of sporadic violence and constant propaganda that has been dragging on for years, only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, a rival from his schooldays. With little food and no...

'The Land of Random Numbers' is a collection of short stories by Tatyana Zamirovskaya, a writer and journalist, the author of the loud-sounding novel 'Death.net'. All the characters in the book are held hostage by the author. The reality of each of the worlds is strictly defined and outlined, but this does not mean that it is impossible to get out, violate, overcome the boundaries. All you need...

On the sides of the railway, in harsh lands, there are boundless steppes, and here, apart from the main road, only his best friend, Kazangap, lives. When Kazangap dies, Yedigei decides to bury him in the old cemetery of Ana-Beyit - ‘Rest in Rest’ - fanned by the discovery of legends and legends. However, on the site of the cemetery, where many of his skeletons of his ancestors lie, a spaceport...

Gazdanov is primarily known for his novels An Evening at Claire’s, Night Roads, and The Return of the Buddha. Bunin and Gorky highly praised the novel An Evening at Claire’s. Critics particularly noted the author’s incredible sense of word and rhythm, the enchanting magic of the narrator, subtle irony, and lyrical depiction of the surrounding reality. — This collection includes two famous works...

Jonas Heidbrink, ein Erfolgsmensch. Schon vor dem dreißigsten hat er sein Start-up versilbert; arbeiten muss er sein Leben lang nicht mehr. Aber es geht Heidbrink nicht gut, überhaupt nicht. Und so fährt er eines kalten Januartages los Richtung Osten, in die mecklenburgische Einöde, wo inmitten von Sümpfen ein schlossartiger Bau emporragt: das Sanatorium.

Gerrit Kouwenaars Novelle erzählt die Geschichte des Jugendlichen Karel im Mai 1940 während des Überfalls der Deutschen auf die Niederlande. «Fall, Bombe, fall» ist ein wiederentdeckter Klassiker und zugleich eine erschreckend aktuelle Erzählung darüber, wie der Krieg jungen Menschen ihre Jugend stiehlt.