Vanishings and aparitions, nightmares and twists of fate, mysterious ailments and supernatural interventions haunt these stories by the Russian master Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, heir to the spellbinding tradition of Gogol and Poe. Blending the miraculous with the macabre, and leavened by a mischievous gallows humor, these bewitching tales are like nothing being written in Russia-or anywhere else in the world-today.

Contents:

• Openers
• Songs of the Eastern Slavs
• The Arm The Incident at Sokolniki
• A Mother's Farewell
• Allegories
• Hygiene
• A New Soul
• The New Robinson Crusoe
• The Miracle
• Requiems
• The God Poseidon
• My Love
• The Fountain House
• The Shadow Life
• Two Kingdoms
• There's Someone in the House
• Fairy Tales
• The Father
• The Cabbage-Patch Mother
• Marilena's Secret
• The Old Monk's Testament
• The Black Coat