Fandango and Other Stories
Alexander Grin author Bryan Karetnyk translator Barry Scherr editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:3rd Jan '20
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In a bucolic idyll, a terrorist agonizes over the act of violence he is about to commit. On a remote island in the South Pacific, the investigation of a case of mass suicide reveals further mysteries. In a far-flung colony, a cynical trio sends an unwitting man into the wilderness in search of a chimera. Mixing romance and high adventure, intrigue and the fantastic, these magnificent tales by one of Russia’s most enduringly popular writers deftly probe the depths of human nature and desire.
Fandango and Other Stories presents a selection of essential short fiction by Alexander Grin, Russia’s counterpart to Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alexandre Dumas. By turns a sailor, a dockworker, a vagrant, a gold prospector, a lumberjack, a soldier, a deserter, an agitator, an exile, a prisoner, and a runaway, Grin wrote seven novels and over three hundred short stories that transport the reader to a realm of pure art and imagination. His ingenious plots explore conflicts of the individual and society in a romantic world populated by a cast of eccentric, cosmopolitan characters. Fandango and Other Stories includes works drawn from across the entirety of Grin’s varied career to encompass the range and sophistication of his writing. Bryan Karetnyk’s elegant translations bring Grin’s distinctive voice to a new generation of readers.
Strange and memorable. Students of modern literature should greet this as if discovering hidden treasure. * Kirkus Reviews *
Bryan Karetnyk’s sparkling translations bring out both the stylistic intricacy and the psychological depth of Alexander Grin’s tales, calling to mind the “delicate, graceful lacework of fretted leaves” described in “Lanphier Colony.” This expertly edited collection introduces, at long last, the full range of Grin’s gifts to the English-speaking world. -- Boris Dralyuk, executive editor, Los Angeles Review of Books
Grin’s prose is beautiful, evocative and striking... Fandango is a marvellous collection of stories and Alexander Grin is obviously a writer whose works have been unjustly neglected. -- Karen Langley * Shiny New Books *
He deserves to be read for his perceptive analysis of individual will and his imaginative inventiveness. Karetnyk's translation provides an agreeable opportunity to do so. * SCRSS Digest *
Over thirty years have passed since any of Alexander Grin's extraordinary work was offered to the English reader. In these sensitive and accurate new translations, justice is finally done to Grin's unique world, sometimes reminiscent of Robert Louis Stevenson and Kafka, but inimitable in the subtlety that underlies its simplicity. -- Donald Rayfield, Queen Mary University of London
ISBN: 9780231189767
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
336 pages