“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:19–20).Are there things in your personal life, your loved ones’ lives, or your church life that desperately need to change for the better?Have you been yearning for real spiritual breakthrough in the challenging situations you fa...

"Twenty-Six Men and a Girl" is a short story written by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky in 1899, and is one of his most famous. It is a pioneering tale of social realism (the story predates Soviet socialist realism), and is a lament of lost ideals. Twenty-six men slave away in a cellar, making kringles, looked down on by all around them, including the bread bakers. Their only joy in their lives is the 16-year-old Tanya, who visits them every morning to collect kringles.A new bread b...

Maxim Gorky, whose real name was Alexey Maximovich Pyeshkov, is probably the best known late nineteenth century Russian fiction writer among the English speaking world. His pen-name translates as Maxim the Bitter, which attitude is reflected in many of his works.Much of his writing reflects his own terrible life experiences and suffering. It is in his short stories that he reveals his true genius. "Comrades" reveals an ironic humour in its conception and is one of Gorky's lighter t...

Four key new translations of plays (including three previously unpublished works) written at the turn of the 20th century, charting the descent of Russia into revolutionHailed by Chekhov as the voice of his time, Gorky's four plays offer a panoramic view of Russia in the throes of revolution.THE ZYKOVS is set shortly before the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. Antipa Zykov is a merchant adventurer. His young wife, Pavla is an unworldly convent-bred girl, too weak to re...

A collection of strange and often grisly tales by some of the world's greatest writers, ranging from mildly unsettling to hair-raising.1."The Mystery of Sasassa Valley", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle2. "The Severed Hand", by Wilhelm Hauff3. "The Black Ferry", by John Galt4. "The Tête Noire", by Charles Allston Collins5. "The Bundle of Letters", by Maurus Jokai6. "The Judgement of Paris", by Leonard Merrick7. "A Witch in the Peak" ,by R. Murray ...

Maxim Gorky, whose real name was Alexey Maximovich Pyeshkov, is probably the best-known late-19th-century Russian fiction writer among the English-speaking world. His pen name translates as Maxim the Bitter, an attitude reflected in many of his works.Much of his writing reflects his own terrible life experiences and suffering. It is in his short stories that he reveals his true genius. "Her Lover" describes the plight of a lonely, alienated woman who creates an imaginary lover for ...

A powerful and touching novel of ordinary people in the grip of a terrible and sinister regime, and a moving portrait of a love that will not be extinguished.Leningrad, 1952.Andrei, a young hospital doctor and Anna, a nursery school teacher, are forging a life together in the post-war, post-siege wreckage. But their happiness is precarious, like that of millions of Russians who must avoid the claws of Stalin's merciless Ministry for State security. So when ...

Ayn Rand's first published novel, a timeless story that explores the struggles of the individual against the state in Soviet Russia.First published in 1936, We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness. It tells of a young woman’s passionate love, held like a fortress against the corrupting evil of a totalitarian state.We the Living

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the highly acclaimed translators of War and Peace, Doctor Zhivago, and Anna Karenina, which was an Oprah Book Club pick and million-copy bestseller, bring their unmatched talents to The Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov, a collection of thirty of Chekhov’s best tales from the major periods of his creative life.Considered the greatest short story writer, Anton Chekhov changed the genre itself with his spare, impressi...

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREStarring Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, & James McAvoyIn 1910, Count Leo Tolstoy, the most famous writer in the world, is caught in the struggle between his devoted wife and an equally devoted acolyte over the master's legacy. Sofya Andreyevna fears that she and the children she has borne Tolstoy will lose all to Vladimir Chertkov and the Tolstoyan movement, which preaches the ideals of poverty, chastity, and pacifism.As...

In this mystery introducing a hard-boiled Soviet police inspector, "Kaminsky gets Russia right" (Ed McBain).Aleksander Granovsky has dedicated his life to exposing the brutality of the Russian penal system. In two days he will be tried for the crime of smuggling essays to the West. It is a show trial, and there is no doubt he will be convicted and executed, yet before he dies, he intends to tell the truth one more time. But this is Moscow, where death is never hero...

“[A] testament to a great spirit, a woman who lived in terrifying proximity to one of the greatest writers of all time, and who understood exactly the high price she would have to pay for this privilege.”—Jay Parini, author of The Last StationTranslated by Cathy Porter and with an introduction by Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing, The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy chronicles in extraordinary detail the diarist’s remarkable marriage to the legendary man of letters, Count Leo Tolstoy, ...