The wonderful verve, unflagging verbal invention, and wicked charm that Tatyana Tolstaya brings to the short story have earned her a devoted audience all over the world. Edna O’Brien has called her an enchantress.” Anita Desai has spoken of her work’s richness and ardent life.” Stemming from a Russian tradition of heartbreak and humor, mixing harsh realism and disconcerting fantasy with lyrical abandon, Tolstaya is the natural successor to the Bulgakov of THE MASTER AND MARGARITA and the Nabokov of PNIN. In these pages we meet Denisov, who dreams of composing a treatise that will prove the metaphysical impossibility of Australia; Natasha, who searches not only Leningrad but her memory for a great love she knows she once had. Tolstaya’s gift for characterization is unequaled, and again and again she shows how the extraordinary will suddenly erupt in the midst of ordinary life. This original collects the contents of Tolstaya’s two previously published collections of short fiction, ON THE GOLDEN PORCH and SLEEPWALKER IN A FOG, together with new stories that appear here in English for the first time. It is a necessary introduction to the work of a thrilling and enduring proponent of the short story.

Born in Leningrad, Tatyana Tolstaya comes from an old Russian family that includes the writers Leo and Alexei Tolstoy. She studied at Leningrad State University and then moved to Moscow, where she continues to live. She is also the author of Pushkin’s Children: Writings on Russia and Russians.

Jamey Gambrell is a writer on Russian art and culture. Her translations include  Marina Tsvetaeva's Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries 1917—1922 and Vladimir Sorokin's  Ice, published by NYRB Classics on December 2006.

Antonina W. Bouis's most recent translation from the Russian is Edvard Radzinsky's  Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar.