First published in 'McClure's Magazine' between December of 1901 and October of 1901, 'Kim' is the story of Kim (Kimball) O'Hara, the orphaned son of a British soldier. Set against the backdrop of 'The Great Game' a political conflict between Russia and Great Britain in central Asia, the novel traces the life of the title character from begging and errand running on the streets of Lahore to his...

In this issue: Leonid Latynin ‘The Face-Maker and the Muse’. This 1978 Russian novel is about an artist who lives in ‘the city,’ a dystopian hell whose citizens are identified only by numbers - unless they happen to look like an idealized face called ‘the image’ - created by the eponymous Face-Maker - in which case they receive a name and certain privileges. Plastic surgery, of course, plays...

Life in the Far Forest cannot be called calm: not a day without crimes, chases, suspicions and brutal intrigues. Finally, all the books of the 'Beastly Detective' by Anna Starobinets: 'Lair of the Wolf', 'Right of the Predator', 'Claws of Wrath' and 'Pincher' are published under one cover, and 'Pincher' is published for the first time. Each book is a separate detective story in which the...

In this issue: Marina Filatova ‘If I Were a Man…’, Svetlana Vasilenko ‘Shamara’, Nina Sadur from ‘Witch's Tears’, Marina Palei ‘The Bloody Women's Ward’, Galina Scherbakova ‘The Three Loves of Masha Peredreeva’, Larissa Miller ‘A Childhood in Post-War Moscow’, Elena Glinka ‘Kolyma Streetcar’, Julia Latynina ‘Waiting for the Golden Age’. Poetry: Nina Iskrenko, Elena Schwartz. The issue is...

When Murph Cooper rocks up to his new school, he can't help but feel a bit out of his depth. And it's not because he's worried about where to sit, and making friends, and fitting in, or not knowing where the loos are. It's because his mum has enrolled him at a school for superheroes by mistake. And unlike his fellow students Murph has no special abilities whatsoever. But just because you don't...

In this issue: Vladimir Makanin ‘The Captive of the Caucasus’, Victor Pelevin ‘The Tambourine for the Upper World’, Vassily Aksyonov ‘Palmer's First Flight’, ‘Palmer's Second Flight’, Zinovy Zinik ‘The Moth’, Alexander Terekhov ‘The Rat Killer’, ‘Happiness’, Mark Shatunovsky ‘The Discrete Continuity of Love’. 1995 Booker winners: Georgy Vladimov ‘A General and His Army’, Oleg Pavlov ‘An...

Lovely young Carla Ponce, who lives in Peru, invites Nancy and her friends Bess and George to visit her and solve her 'monkey mystery,' which promises to lead to a fabulous treasure. A clue is carved on an intriguing wooden plaque that is so old, most of the crossword cipher is obliterated. When a notorious gang headed by El Gato (the Cat) steals the priceless relic, Nancy’s hopes of solving...

One day and one night. Five stories at the end of summer. On the last day of summer, Hana, a young successful diplomat, returns to Prague from Lisbon, determined that she wants to experience something more in her life and therefore has to change everything. Petr the tram, on the other hand, is resigned. He drives route 22, and tries to find his fateful girl. Wayne, an American lawyer, has a...

In this issue: Maria Arbatova ‘Equation with Two Knowns’, ‘My Teachers’, Nina Gabrielyan ‘the Lilac Dressing Gown’, Dina Rubina ‘On Upper Maslovka’, Irina Muravyova ‘In Kroporkinskaya Street’, ‘The Forgotten Woman’, Irina Polianskaya ‘The Pure Zone’, Liudmila Petrushevskaya ‘Fairy Tales for Grownup Children’, Larissa Miller ‘Springrime in Vroad Daylight’, poems.

The prose Prisoner No. 1260 was written by Jaromír Šavrda between September and November 1982 during his second imprisonment in Ostrava (1982-84). In the book, he describes the conditions in communist criminals, but also the various fates of muggles or absurd stories that could only be experienced in a country where party idiots ruled together with the secret police. The book was first...