Brigitte Reimann is a German writer from the GDR. Post-war Germany, the tragic division of the country into two parts, a new generation of young people who received a terrible inheritance from their parents and are trying to build a better country on the ruins—all of this is imbued in the author's work.

It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of World War II in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by burning down the home of an innocent family; only twelve-year-old Anton survives. Based on actual events, The Assault traces the complex repercussions of this horrific incident on Anton's life....

When Oksana and her family move from the Ukraine to Florida to begin a new American life, her physicist father delivers pizza at night to make ends meet, her cranky mother sits at home all day worrying, and her flamboyant grandmother relishes the attention she gets from men. All Oksana wants is to be as far away from her family as possible, to have friends, and to be normal—and though she...

There are war stories, but there are also love stories. Stories of aging romantics in modern Ukraine, and of modern Ukrainians in Vienna and Brooklyn, a fantastical tale set on a mysterious island where people never die, a wild lovers' romp through modern-day Ukraine, a sobering account of an American war photographer, and a post-modern tale of a botanist in love. Some of these stories have...

Day after day the Russian asylum-seekers sit across from the interpreter and Peter--the Swiss officers who guard the gates to paradise--and tell of the atrocities they've suffered, or that they've invented, or heard from someone else. These stories of escape, war, and violence intermingle with the interpreter's own reading: a his-tory of an ancient Persian war; letters sent to his son...

Eight stories, eight women, an emotional multitude. In her short-story collection, Birthday, Jana Egle distinctly straps the male presence into the back seat and lets the female voice ring free. Not to be taken as ‘a book for women’ or ‘women's literature,’ the themes and situations in Birthday present a familiar, yet uneasy, vantage point for any reader, regardless of personal, real-life...

Set in contemporary times, Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming tells the story of a Prince Myshkin-like figure, Baron Béla Wenckheim, who returns at the end of his life to his provincial Hungarian hometown. Having escaped from his many casino debts in Buenos Aires, where he was living in exile, he longs to be reunited with his high-school sweetheart Marika. Confusions abound, and what follows is an...

The Culture of Lies is one of the most intelligent and lucid accounts of an appalling episode in history. It shows us the banality and brutality of nationalism and the way that nationalistic ideology permeates every pore of life. Ugrešic's acerbic and penetrating essays cover everything from politics to daily routine, from public to private life. With a diverse and unusual perspective, she...

The women of Picasso’s life are glamorous and elusive, existing in the shadow of his fame—until 1950s aspiring journalist Alana Olson determines to bring one into the light. Unsure of what to expect but bent on uncovering what really lies beneath the canvas, Alana steps into Sara Murphy’s well-guarded home to discover a past complicated by secrets and intrigue.

The heroes of her stories include Nesmeyana, Cheloveditsa, Ega-Bikha, Pele, the goddess of lava and flame, and other unusual creatures. None of them intend to remain beyond the realm of fiction and—though it's hard to say for the better—energetically transform our sedentary lives.

In her novel ‘Fear and Obsessions,’ the narrative is nonlinear and multilayered, intertwining real and imagined reality. The protagonist, a writer from St. Petersburg, is traveling to an international conference. Her plane makes an emergency landing at an unknown airport. Unexpected twists and turns give birth to new literary characters in her imagination and evoke long-forgotten events from...

Fifteen new stories, specially written for the collection, by popular Russian writers: Dmitry Danilov, Alexey Salnikov, Anna Matveeva, Grigory Sluzhitel, Daria Bobyleva, Sergey Shargunov, and many others. – In the wonderful company of contemporary writers, the reader will discover new and recall favorite Moscow routes. – The collection opens with an excerpt from a poem by Dmitry Danilov and...