{"title":"Fiction--World Literature--Russia--21st Century","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-disappearing-act","title":"The Disappearing ACT","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe writer M has lived in the city of B ever since her homeland declared war on a neighboring state. Exiled, she is unable to write there and suffers from loneliness, shame, and despair, but then M is invited to give a reading at a literary festival in a nearby country. After a series of missed connections and mishaps, including losing her phone, she finds herself all alone in the wrong coastal town, befriending a local man and attending the circus...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this brief interlude, severed from reality, it seems as if M may finally escape from herself, from her past, from her nationality. She could start all over from scratch and join the circus. Written in Maria Stepanova's rich and hypnotic prose, \u003cem\u003eThe Disappearing Act\u003c\/em\u003e oscillates between reality and dream, between an oppressive present and a lost past, between life and literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0811239403\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780811239400\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Stepanova, Maria, Dugdale, Sasha, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Feb 2026)","offer_id":45657238241477,"sku":"9780811239400","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780811239400.jpg?v=1768889856"},{"product_id":"the-undead-a-novel-of-modern-russia","title":"The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn this gripping tale of contemporary Russia, a young filmmaker and her friends run afoul of a government that ruthlessly oppresses artists who dare to satirize the regime ...\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Maya, a young Russian filmmaker, makes a low-budget horror movie with her friends, it seems like a promising start to a career in indie film. Little does she know that her jokey lo-fi film will soon attract the attention of the autocratic censors at the highest levels of the Russian police state. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat follows is a propulsive narrative of an artist being crushed by state power, and the choices that one makes within a system where free expression is literally illegal. Written with the undeniable voice of a emigre from Putin's Russia, \u003ci\u003eThe Undead\u003c\/i\u003e is a tense, piercing story that serves as a parable, and a warning, about political oppression.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1685892191\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781685892197\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Satchkova, Svetlana, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Melville House Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Melville House Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jan 2026)","offer_id":45657965822149,"sku":"9781685892197","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781685892197.jpg?v=1768896509"},{"product_id":"steppe","title":"Steppe","description":"\u003cb\u003eA visceral, stirring novel following a queer literature student traveling across Russia with her estranged father, a long haul truck driver secretly dying of AIDS, from the acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eWound\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA decade after her father walks out on her family, the narrator of \u003ci\u003eSteppe\u003c\/i\u003e, now a literature student, goes on the road with him as he makes deliveries across the vast plains of Russia. She's both drawn to and repulsed by his rugged life as a trucker, eager to understand the person who made her. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut the prematurely aged, embittered man secretly being consumed by AIDS who meets her at the train station has little revelation to offer her yearning heart. As he drives her across desolate landscapes in his freight truck, the narrator tugs on the few threads that make him her family, and reflects on her father's small role in Russia's violent patriarchal structure and the chaos and depravity of the post-Soviet 1990s. Always humming in the background, the austere beauty and mercurial nature of the steppe reminds her of the contradictions at the heart of their relationship--both natural and forced, intimate and alienated. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOksana Vasyakina's second novel pierces the surface of human relations and reaches into the depths of shame, longing, and grief that lie beneath. In simple, precise prose, she paints a vivid portrait of estrangement and situates it in the broader context of her country's attempts to reckon with its troubled history.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1646223071\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781646223077\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Vasyakina, Oksana, Alter, Elina, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Catapult\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Catapult","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Jan 2026)","offer_id":45659801288901,"sku":"9781646223077","price":25.65,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781646223077.jpg?v=1768914400"},{"product_id":"things-and-thoughts","title":"(Th)Ings and (Th)Oughts","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom a rising star of \"inventive and wildly evocative\" Russian literature \u003ci\u003e(Publishers Weekly), \u003c\/i\u003e a collection of short stories that straddles the line between delight and horror.\u003c\/b\u003e Twisting the art of the fairytale into something entirely her own, Alla Gorbunova's (\u003ci\u003eTh)ings and (Th)oughts\u003c\/i\u003e is a spellbinding collection of thematically-linked short prose. A teacher contemplates leaving her husband after learning that he doesn't have a soul; a functionary realizes that the only way to survive in contemporary Russia is to go insane; cars fall inexplicably from the sky; skeletons turn up in abandoned lots; a hapless everyman named Ivan Petrovich travels through a madcap Boschian afterlife, coming face-to-face with his own shortcomings, but failing, time after time, to finally get it right. Elsewhere, characters contend with puns, predators, and polyamory, often finding that the bleakness of their existence is an ordeal that only love can sweeten-though it also can't fix anything.  A witty satirist with a post-apocalyptic vision and a theologian's sense of seriousness and depth, Gorbunova is heir to the likes of Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Daniil Kharms. In these fantastic, parable-like tales, she restores fiction's capacity to amuse, terrify, and enchant, turning a magical lens on bitter realities.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1646054032\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781646054039\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gorbunova, Alla, Alter, Elina\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Deep Vellum Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Deep Vellum Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Nov 2025)","offer_id":46080804520133,"sku":"9781646054039","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781646054039.jpg?v=1776040436"},{"product_id":"my-dreadful-body","title":"My Dreadful Body","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"A potent portrait of illness and gender oppression . . . This passionate and lyrical work packs a stinging punch.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Publishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA dazzling debut novel about a young woman's vexed coming of age in a traditional Azerbaijani community in Russia, grappling under the weight of Muslim patriarchal norms and a debilitating neurological condition. The mysterious affliction leaves her unable to control her muscles, plagued by pain and speech disorders, defying diagnosis. Addressing each body part with the scrupulousness of a medical researcher, the narrator explores memories, traditions, and taboos related to her physical self. In the process, a woman once destined for the role of a beautiful marriageable daughter comes to be perceived as damaged goods. With verbal elegance and poetic power, Egana Djabbarova unveils a hidden world in which illness unexpectedly facilitates her liberation. Her book stands in the proud tradition of confessional feminist writers like Sandra Cisneros, Arundhati Roy, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Jamaica Kincaid. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1954404417\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781954404410\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Djabbarova, Egana, Hayden, Lisa C.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: New Vessel Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"New Vessel Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Apr 2026)","offer_id":46099701039301,"sku":"9781954404410","price":17.05,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781954404410.jpg?v=1776644288"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/collections\/fiction-world-literature-russia-21st-century.oembed","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}