In "The Eye", a fussily self-conscious Russian tutor shoots himself after a humiliating beating by his mistress' husband. There follows a satirical detective story and a wonderfully layered exploration of identity, appearance and the loss of self in a world of word-play and confusion. Nabokov described "The Enchanter", written in Paris in 1939, as 'the first little throb of "Lolita"'. The plot is similar: a middle-aged man wedding an unattractive widow in order to indulge his pedophilic obsession with her daughter. The legendary "The Original of Laura" has been the source of much anxiety and contention for Nabokov's fans - and family. The late Vladimir Nabokov requested that this unfinished work be destroyed, but his son, Dmitri, eventually took the decision to publish it many years later. The novel was complete in Nabokov's mind, though he died before he could translate his vision on to paper. It is hard, however, to imagine any scholars, Nabokov enthusiasts or literature lovers being disappointed by even these fragments. These three works make up the latest in the major new beautiful hardback series of the works of Vladimir Nabokov, author of "Lolita" and "Pale Fire", in Penguin Classics.

Novellas: The Eye; The Enchanter; The Original of Laura

vladimir-nabokov

Penguin PressClassics

Love stories, with a twist, by Russia’s preeminent contemporary fiction writer—the author of the prizewinning memoir about growing up in Stalinist Russia, The Girl from the Metropol Hotel   By turns sly and sweet, burlesque and heartbreaking, these realist fables of women looking for love are the stories that Ludmilla Petrushevskaya—who has been compared to Chekhov, Tolstoy, Beckett, Poe, Angela Carter, and even Stephen King—is best known for in Russia.   Here are attempts at human connection, both depraved and sublime, by people across the life span: one-night stands in communal apartments, poignantly awkward couplings, office trysts, schoolgirl crushes, elopements, tentative courtships, and rampant infidelity, shot through with lurid violence, romantic illusion, and surprising tenderness. With the satirical eye of Cindy Sherman, Petrushevskaya blends macabre spectacle with transformative moments of grace and shows just why she is Russia’s preeminent contemporary fiction writer.

There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, An

Literature & Fiction

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

Contemporary

Miami Blues

[Read by Stephen Bolby]Chronically depressed, constantly strapped for money, always willing to bend the rules a bit, Hoke Moseley is hardly what you'd think of as the perfect cop, but he is one of the greatest detective creations of all time. After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious El Dorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn't think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over ten years of cases, wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures. But the pieces never quite add up to revenge, and the few clues he has keep connecting to a dimwitted hooker, her ex-con boyfriend, and the bizarre murder of a Hare Krishna pimp.

CHARLES WILLEFORD

Sideswipe

New Hope For the Dead

New Hope for the Dead

The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World

Engineering & Transportation

DanielYergin

Engineering

Geoffrey Hosking has been one of the foremost historians of Russia and her Empire for more than twenty years. He traces Russia's history from the settlement of Kiev through to the present day. He argues that two nation-building movements, one based on a messianic vision of Russia's destiny as God's people, the other a modernising and expansive imperial project of administration and assimilation, have clashed since the rise of Tsarism. These two nascent national identities offer a chance to compare & trace continuities in Tsarist and Soviet Russia & allow us to appreciate more fully the recurrent themes that have at times, and not least this century, appeared wholly without precedent in the history of the world.

Russia & The Russians

History

HOSKING, GEOFFREY

Russia

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