Apricot Jam and Other Stories
- 6 Dec 2018
- 9781786894236
- £9.99
- 384 pp
- 129×198mm
- 3 Nov 2011
- 9780857863201
- £7.99
- 384 pp
In a few words
The final book from the Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, on the centenary of his birth
In a few words
A brilliant new collection of short stories from the Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
One of the greatest writers of his time
A remarkable human being, a visionary, a crusader in the simplest sense, who was steered in his writing, as in his actions, by a deep sense of justice
One of the greatest writers of his time
A remarkable human being, a visionary, a crusader in the simplest sense, who was steered in his writing, as in his actions, by a deep sense of justice
More about
the book
In this, his atmospheric final work of fiction, the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich introduces an unforgettable set of characters whose day-to-day lives are transformed under the pressures of Soviet rule. These stories confirm Solzhenitsyn’s position alongside Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Gogol as one of Russia’s great writers.
More about
the book
‘No matter what, you cannot change human nature,’ exclaims a soldier in the final story of this collection, ‘even under socialism.’
Apricot Jam and Other Stories presents a series of astonishing portraits of Russian life before, during and after Soviet rule. In ‘The New Generation’, a professor promotes a student purely out of good will. Years later, the same professor finds himself arrested and, in a striking twist of fate, his student becomes his interrogator. In ‘Nastenka’, two young women with the same name lead routine, ordered lives – until the Revolution exacts radical change on them both.
With an unforgettable cast of displaced family members, military commanders and imprisoned activists, these stories play out the moral dilemmas and ideological conflicts that defined Russia in the twentieth century.
What was forgotten was how great a writer Solzhenitsyn was. But now we are reminded with these nine short stories written shortly after his return to Russia and published posthumously in an excellent translation . . . The more experimental 'binary' or two-part tales, which dominate this collection, share the qualities of Solzhenitsyn's finest prose: its precision and visual clarity; the subtle irony and humour of its tone; its moral truth; and the skilful crafting and shaping of the story for emotional effect
Read these stories for a reminder of an extraordinary life, for the range of the interests they encompass and for a pugnacious moral energy that even the octogenarian writer was hard pressed to tame
In terms of the effect he has had on history, Solzhenitsyn is the dominant writer of [the twentieth] century
David Remnick
New YorkerDescribed by scholars as ranking alongside his best work . . . one of the publishing events of the autumn
What was forgotten was how great a writer Solzhenitsyn was. But now we are reminded with these nine short stories written shortly after his return to Russia and published posthumously in an excellent translation . . . The more experimental 'binary' or two-part tales, which dominate this collection, share the qualities of Solzhenitsyn's finest prose: its precision and visual clarity; the subtle irony and humour of its tone; its moral truth; and the skilful crafting and shaping of the story for emotional effect
Read these stories for a reminder of an extraordinary life, for the range of the interests they encompass and for a pugnacious moral energy that even the octogenarian writer was hard pressed to tame
In terms of the effect he has had on history, Solzhenitsyn is the dominant writer of [the twentieth] century
David Remnick
New YorkerDescribed by scholars as ranking alongside his best work . . . one of the publishing events of the autumn
