The Prophet Almustafa, having lived for twelve years in the alien city of Orphalese, is preparing to return home. Along the way, he is stopped by a group of locals, who are interested in the prophet's views on love and death, freedom and power, good and evil. Almustafa's laconic yet comprehensive reflections are presented in the form of parables. They not only provide answers to the...

A very unusual collection. A very unusual Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky is not only (and not so much) tragic, but also ironic, funny, touching, and even sentimental. Dostoevsky of the ‘small form’ is a master of topical plots, comic situations, and witty dialogue.

The summer of 1928 was a vintage season for a growing boy. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma's belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer in the life of a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding—remembered forever in moving,...

Famous for his enormously influential poetry and plays, Alexander Pushkin is also beloved for his short stories. This collection showcases his tremendous range, which enabled him to portray the Russian people through romance, drama, and satire. The sparkling humor of the five ‘Tales of Belkin’ contrasts with Pushkin's dark fable of gambling and obsessive greed in ‘The Queen of Spades’ and his...

The Queen of Spades; The Tales of Belkin; Peter the Great's Blackamoor; The Captain's Daughter.

Riven by the tension between hagiographies, utopias, belief, longing, and grief, the poems of My Heresies catalog a personal and familial history originating in Bucharest, Romania and landing in Birmingham, Alabama. Whether through sardonic takes on old Bible myths or homage paid to French-Romanian poet Paul Celan, Stefanescu's poems are laden in subtext, in imagery sometimes abstract and lush,...

Meeting online seems like a harmless game—until the rules are written by others. Writer Olesya meets a charming stranger. Intellectual riddles, light conversation, promises of support and understanding—it all seems like a rare stroke of luck. But the illusion soon crumbles: behind the attractive appearance and beautiful words lies something far darker. Locked in an unfamiliar house, Olesya...

She no longer has a name. No life. She's a nameless captive in the basement of a country house, kept chained. She's cared for, taken out for walks, but punished for her misdeeds, drugged, and left alone. Her captor sees her as his mother and fosters the image of an ideal family. But the situation suddenly begins to change when a fiancée arrives...

One rainy night, a young woman carrying a baby enters the forest—and vanishes. Anna Smolina, a volunteer with a search organization and a woman with a difficult past, single-handedly raising her adopted daughter, sets out to find her. Little does Anna suspect that by stepping into the dark forest, she will set off a chain of terrifying events that will threaten her daughter's life, as well...