Short Stories in Russian: New Penguin Parallel Text

by Brian James Baer (Editor)

A dual-language edition of Russian stories—many appearing in English for the first time   This new volume of ten short stories offers students at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature without constantly having to refer to a dictionary.   The stories—many of which appear here in English for the first time—are by well-established writers like Vladimir Sorokin, Ludmila Ulitskaya, Sergey Lukyanenko, and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya as well as emerging voices like Alexander Ilichevsky, Evgeny Grishkovets, and Yulya Kisina. Drawn from the last two decades of the Soviet Union and the two decades following its collapse, they chart a period of dramatic social change, often using metaphors of the body, and represent a range of literary styles that highlight the dynamism of contemporary Russian fiction.   Complete with notes, the stories make excellent reading in either language. For each short story in this eBook edition, the full English translation is followed by its original Russian text.

Genres: Russia, Fiction, Short Stories, Russian Literature

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2017

Reviews

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knyga skirta norintiems tobulinti rusų kalbą ir, žinoma, mokantiems angliškai. Apsakymų vertimas į anglų kalbą - pažodinis. Skamba klaikiai, bet toks, matyt, jau tos knygutės tikslas.

Aš jos ėmiausi tik dėl dešimties rusiškų apsakymų:
Bez paniki! = Don't panic! / Sergey Lukyanenko
Litovskai͡|a ruchka = The Lithuanian hand / Julia Kissina
Nakolka = The tattoo / Evgenii Grishkovets
Ruki = Hands / Yuly Daniel
Ded i Laĭma = Grandpa and Laima / Dina Rubina
Sinbad morekhod = Sinbad the Sailor / Yuri Buida
Zverʹ = The beast / Ludmila Ulitskaya
Ruka = The arm / Ludmila Petrushevskaya
Zaplyv = The swim / Vladimir Sorokin
Tri voĭny = Three wars / Alexander Ilichevsky

Apsakymai - 5*, bet ta tekstų transformacija man vistiek labai baisi -1*

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Красивые, грустные расказы, очень характерно русской душы. "Зверь", от Людмилы Улитской, был по-моему слышком длинной (почти 30 страниц) и мне трудно прочитал. Вообше эта книга не для начинающых, есть много непонятных литературных слов и моя учителя тоже была удивлена. Но было хорошой вызов.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting collection short stories from the late Soviet and early Post-Soviet eras, focussed on body parts and especially on hands which had a strong symbolism in the Soviet Union.

Neither English nor Russian are my native languages, and although I consider myself quite high level in English (my level in Russian is "only" B2), not even the translations were always comprehensible for me. Which basically means that for Russian learners, some of the stories will be really hard to understand as the vocabulary is complex. What makes the reading comprehension even more difficult is the fact that the translations are not literal, and that some stories are really abstract and/or hard to interpret without profound knowledge of Soviet culture/history and the author's backgrounds. There are helpful footnotes, but only very few. This being said, I did not take nearly as much from the collection as I expected for a learning purpose. The stories are somewhat ordered by difficulty and the first one, written by Sergey Lukyanenko, is kept in a rather colloquial style, but the difficulty curve is very steep.

The book's promise to "[offer] students at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature without constantly having to refer to a dictionary" is not really kept.

Ironically, I still noticed few typos in the Russian versions. Nothing severe, though.

It is difficult to find bilingual books including the Russian language, more so in Germany where even English books can be hard to get. Besides this one, I only have 2 in my collection, both of which include short stories by classic Russian authors such as Tolstoy and Chekhov from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Therefore I appreciate the work and the insight into (Post-)Soviet literature. However, this collection is a lot more difficult to understand, so don't get tricked by the illusion that contemporary Russian were easier. Consider this if you're planning to read this book in order to improve your language skill.

I still enjoyed most of the stories. My favorite one is Руки/Hands by Yuli Daniel. The difficulty of the stories is, of course, neither the editor's nor the authors' fault. However, I wish the edition of the stories were better, with more thorough footnotes for comprehensibility. As some included authors are well-known, whereas others are not, I also think that the collection lacks information on the authors' backgrounds which would also help a lot in understanding and arousing interest.

[Skumppa2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice concept of having the two language versions side by side. I think this is nice way to learn the language. Russian literature is also quite complex, so the translation helped a lot. The complexity also makes me think that perhaps next time I read the stories in my mother tongue. There were many novels in one book, which made the experience much more enjoyable. Sometimes I would have translated some parts of the novel differently than the English version suggests, so I guess partially the translation was lacking further understanding of this complexity. Anyways, a good way to get a taster of Russian literature!

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t read Russian, so only read the English side; but the stories were all so creepy and horrifying that I wished I’d never read them. Not in a ‘good literature’ way, either, but just in a simple, not great or deep at all but just ghastly or neurotic way. Is this what modern literature has become? Depressing.

[Louis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. The stories were a depressing and rather odd collection. The translations didn't make sense. I was scratching my head most of the time wondering what I'd just read. In addition, no stress marks, so I had to keep referring to the dictionary. Not for me. But I can tell a lot of hard work went into this edition hence two stars rather than none.

[Leopoldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Los mejores cuentos de esta antología fueron el de Lukyanenko, Kissina, Yuly Daniel (extraordinario), Ulitskaya y Sorokin. Todos recomendadísimos. Buen indicador de que la literatura rusa está todo menos muerta.

[Olga S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good collection of short stories by modern authors with translations . Gave it to my son for GCSE prep. Was so much more interesting than standard GCSE prep.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fantastic stories. Excellent way to work on Russian.

[John Hinton]

Enjoyable reads and helpful for developing my Russian.