"A tour de force—exquisite and gripping."—Philippe Sands, author of East West StreetThe Soviet and post-Soviet world, with its untold multitude of crimes, is a natural breeding ground for ghost stories. No one writes them more movingly than Russian author Sergei Lebedev, who in this stunning volume probes a collective guilty conscience marked by otherworldliness and the denial of misdeeds. These eleven tales share a mystical topography in which the legacy ...

A coming of age novel set in a crumbling Soviet Union by the acclaimed author of Oblivion —"t he best of Russia ' s younger generation of writers " ( The New York Review of Books ).As the Soviet Union edges toward collapse, a young boy's idyllic childhood takes a sinister turn. Rumors of a serial...

"A thriller dipped in poison . . . Shares some of le Carré’s fascination with secret worlds and the nature of evil."***—The New York Times***The terrifying, lengthening list of Russia’s use of lethal poisons against its critics has inspired acclaimed author Sergei Lebedev’s latest novel. With uncanny timing, he examines how and why Russia and the Soviet Union have developed horrendous neurotoxins. At its center is a ruthless chemist named Professor Kalitin, obsessed with developing...

An idyllic childhood takes a sinister turn. Rumors of a serial killer haunt the neighborhood, families pack up and leave town without a word of warning, and the country begins to unravel. Policemen stand by as protesters overtake the streets, knowing that the once awe-inspiring symbols of power they wear on their helmets have become devoid of meaning. Lebedev depicts a vast empire coming apart at the seams, transforming a very public moment into something tender and personal, and writes wi...

2008 Orion Book AwardThe New York Times bestseller: a true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands.When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw—and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare mo...

A PEN Translates Award-winning collection of short stories about life in North Korea under Kim Jong-Il, written in secret by a dissident author.The Accusation is a revelatory work of fiction that exposes the truth of the North Korean regime. Set during the period of Kim Jong-Il's leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation throw light on different aspects of life in this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships.One story,...

The New York Times bestseller now a major motion picture starring Jessica Chastain.1939: the Germans have invaded Poland. The keepers of the Warsaw zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, survive the bombardment of the city, only to see the occupiers ruthlessly kill many of their animals. The Nazis then carry off the prized specimens to Berlin for their program to create the “purest” breeds, much as they saw themselves as the purest human race. Opposed to all the ...

New York Times BestsellerWinner of the World Fantasy AwardOne of New York magazine’s 10 Best Books of the YearOne of NPR’s 5 Best Works of Foreign FictionThe celebrated scary fairy tales of Russia’s preeminent contemporary fiction writer—the author of the prizewinning memoir about growing up in Stalinist Russia, The Girl from the Metropol HotelVanishings and a...

A fable about the power of books and knowledge, "finely balanced between pathos and comedy," from one of Czechoslovakia's most popular authors ( Los Angeles Times).A New York Times Notable BookHaňtá has been compacting trash for thirty-five years. Every evening, he rescues books from the jaws of his hydraulic press, carries them home, and fills his house with them. Haňtá may be an idiot, as his boss calls him, but he is an idiot with a difference—t...

A deeply moving meditation on memory, history, love, and art by the author of Dreams of My Russian SummersIn The Life of an Unknown Man, Andreï Makine explores what truly matters in life through the prism of Russia's past and present.Shutov, a disenchanted writer, revisits St. Petersburg after twenty years of exile in Paris, hoping to recapture his youth. Instead, he meets Volsky, an old man who tells him his extraordinary story: of surviv...

From the Franz Kafka Prize–winning author of Lenin's Kiss, a "stupendous and unforgettable" novel of Mao's China ( The Times, London).In the ninety-ninth district of a re-education compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen their loyalty to Communist ideologies. Here, the Musician and her lover, the Scholar, along with the Author and the Theologian, are subjected to grinding physical labor. They are also encouraged to ...

Journey through Poland, Ukraine, Slovenia, and other places neglected by tourists, with "an accomplished stylist with an eye for telling detail" (Irvine Welsh).Andrzej Stasiuk is a restless and indefatigable traveler. By car, train, bus, and ferry, he goes from his native Poland to Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Moldova, and Ukraine—to small towns and villages with strangely evocative names. "The heart of my Europe," he tells us, "beats in Sokolów Po...