Gypsies

ЧтениЯReadings #35

by Alexei Bayer (Editor), Olga Kuzmina (Editor)

In Russian literature, Gypsies are a symbol, an ideal, an unattainable dream rather than an actual people. Freedom, unbound passion and rejection of authority are a dangerous business, and in Russian literature they invariably prove fatal. This incredible volume brings together over a dozen short stories, poems, memoirs and essays that provide invaluable perspective and understanding of the Gypsy motif and experience as expressed in Russian literature.

Contents:
Introduction: On the role of gypsies in Russian history and literature / Alexei Bayer
The Gypsy Girl / Alexander Pushkin
Makar Chudra / Maxim Gorky
Gypsies of the Smolensk Province / Vladimir Dobrovolsky
Gypsy Singing and the Cultural Landscape / Galina Ulianova
The Enchanted Wanderer / Nikolai Leskov
Gypsy Girl / David Samoylov
The Living Corpse - Act 1, Scene 2 (excerpt) / Lev Tolstoy
The Tribe of Pharaohs / Alexander Kuprin
Now, I, who once was proud and haughty / Alexander Blok
The Buryakov Family / Ivan Rom-Lebedev
O, Manon! / Ludmila Ulitskaya
Gypsies Behind Bars / Olga Romanova
Thieves / Alexei Bayer

140 pages, Paperback

First published June 29, 2016

About the author

Came to the US in 1975. Worked at a print shop on Long Island, graduated from Columbia College in 1980 with a degree in Italian literature. Studied in Bologna, Italy and got an MA in International Economics from The Johns Hopkins SAIS program. Worked for Educational Testing Service, for A. Gary Shilling, a Wall Street consultancy, Standard & Poor's, The Economist Publications. Started my own economic consulting firm, KAFAN FX Information Services.
Started writing fiction in 1990. Published short stories and poems in Kenyon Review, New England Review, Salamander, River City and other publications. A collection of short stories, Europtrash, came out in Moscow in 2004 in a Russian translation by writer Andrei Gelasimov.
Translated from Russian both contemporary works of prose and poetry and Russian 18th and 19th century classical writers, including Maya Kucherskaya's New Paterikon, published in English as Faith and Humor from Muscovy.
First murder mystery, Murder at the Dacha, published in 2013, followed by a prequel, Latchkey Murders (2015) and a sequel, Murder and the Muse (2016).
Just finished Children of the Ark, a sci-fi novel set in 2276; finishing a novel set in a New York suburb and the fourth Russian mystery, to feature gangs of disabled WWII veterans.