'The Hour of the Bull' is a novel in which a fascinating adventure story harmoniously combines with the unique philosophical and ethical concept of the author, who innovatively rethought the dystopian genre. The story of the expedition of earthlings of the distant future to the planet Tormans, inhabited by the descendants of people who fled the Earth long ago, where as a result a society was...

E. Jabbarova's new novel is a branching narrative where the plot lines initially seem unrelated, but ultimately converge. What does it mean to find a home, and what does it mean to lose it? How is a family history formed? What makes people feel closeness and kinship with one another? Grappling with these questions, the characters are in constant, intense motion – in a desperate attempt to...

Thirteen contemporary writers writing in Russian have created thirteen short stories about the customs and traditions in their cultures: diverse, yet nevertheless based on the same phenomena and processes. Coming of age (for example, through a computer game, as in Dasha Blagova's story), choosing a profession (becoming a shepherd or a vlogger, as in Islam Khanipaev's text), marriage (between...

‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ is a classic of ‘horror literature,’ a work whose popularity only increases with time. This short novel about a Victorian scientist who conducts a daring and dangerous experiment on himself, thereby unleashing his dark ‘self’ from the depths of his subconscious – the sinister villain and murderer Mr. Hyde – continues to stir minds and hearts,...

This book is highly recommended as a reference book for family reading and for use in all educational institutions. And as for government officials and other persons in positions of power, they should consider it their duty to familiarize themselves with this work, lest their exercise of power turn into an even greater misfortune for the Fatherland.

‘The novel ‘Measuring the World’ fascinatingly, intelligently, and with subtle humor tells the story of two geniuses of the Enlightenment era, Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt, as typical representatives of the German national character in all its manifestations. These two outstanding men were very different in every respect. While Humboldt traveled almost the entire globe,...

Dina Rubina is a contemporary prose writer and winner of the Russian ‘Big Book’ award. Her novella ‘On Upper Maslovka Street’ was adapted into a film in 2004, starring Alisa Freindlich and Yevgeny Mironov. This work is largely personal for Rubina. While living in Moscow, the writer and her husband visited Nina Ilyinichna Niss-Goldman, a famous artist. She sculpted portraits of Bryusov,...

One of the most important novels of our time, which has entered the post-war canon of European literature, was first published in 1959. Its protagonist is the ‘little man’ Oskar Matzerath, whose childhood coincides with the years of the rise of National Socialism. Aware of the absurdity of reality, he decides to stop growing and refuses to become an adult. His constant companion is a tin...

One of the most famous works by the 2025 Nobel Prize laureate in literature. – A disturbing and captivating novel that is impossible to put down. – The story of a small town where the arrival of a strange circus with a giant whale triggers a chain of mysterious events. – The book served as the basis for the legendary film ‘Werckmeister Harmonies’ by director Béla Tarr.

In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer created one of the great touchstones of English literature, a masterly collection of chivalric romances, moral allegories and low farce. A story-telling competition between a group of pilgrims from all walks of life is the occasion for a series of tales that range from the Knight’s account of courtly love and the ebullient Wife of Bath’s Arthurian legend, to...

Published just years before the French Revolution, Laclos's great novel of moral and emotional depravity is a disturbing and ultimately damning portrayal of a decadent society. Aristocrats and ex-lovers Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont embark on a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to bring amusement to their jaded lives. While Merteuil challenges Valmont to seduce...

‘The Robot Tales,’ written and published by Stanislaw Lem between 1963 and 1965, tell stories set in an imaginary pseudo-medieval universe where robots have taken the place of humans. They dream and fall in love, perform heroic deeds and play petty tricks on each other – just like members of humanity. The stories have been translated into 18 languages and have also been adapted into several...