Pushkin Hills
An unsuccessful writer and an inveterate alcoholic, Boris Alikhanov has recently divorced his wife Tatyana, and he is running out of money. The prospect of a summer job as a tour guide at the Pushkin Hills Preserve offers him hope of regaining some balance in life as his wife makes plans to emigrate to the West with their daughter Masha, but during Alikhanov's stay in the rural estate of Mikhaylovskoye, his life continues to unravel.
Populated with unforgettable characters--including Alikhanov's fellow guides Mitrofanov and Pototsky, and the KGB officer Belyaev--Pushkin Hills ranks among Dovlatov's renowned works The Suitcase and The Zone as his most personal and poignant portrayal of the Russian attitude towards life and art.
The Zone
Written in Sergei Dovlatov's unique voice and unmatched style, "The Zone" is a satirical novelization of Dovlatov's time as a prison guard for the Soviet Army in the early 1960s. Snapshots of the prison are juxtaposed with the narrator's letters to Igor Markovich of Hermitage Press in which he urges Igor to publish the very book we're reading. As Igor receives portions of the prison camp manuscript, so too does the reader.Arguably Dovlatov's most significant work, "The Zone" illuminates the twisted absurdity of the life of a prison guard: "Almost any prisoner would have been suited to the role of a guard. Almost any guard deserved a prison term." Full of Dovlatov's trademark dark humor and dry wit, "The Zone's" narrator is an extension of his author, and the book fittingly begins with the following disclaimer: "The names, events, and dates given here are all real. I invented only those details that were not essential. Therefore, any resemblance between the characters in this book and living people is intentional and malicious. And all fictionalizing was unexpected and accidental." What follows is a complex novel that captures two sides of Dovlatov: the writer and the man.
The Suitcase
Several years after emigrating from the USSR, the author discovers the battered suitcase he had brought with him gathering dust at the back of a wardrobe. As he opens the suitcase, the seemingly undistinguished items he finds inside take on a riotously funny life of their own as Dovlatov inventories the circumstances under which he acquired them. A poplin shirt evokes the bittersweet story of courtship and marriage, a pair of boots calls up the hilarious conclusion to an official banquet, two pea-green crepe socks bring back memories of his partly successful attempt to become a black-market racketeer, while a double-breasted suit reminds him of when he was approached by the KGB to spy on a Swedish writer.
Сергей Довлатов - один из наиболее популярных русских писателей конца XX века. Он родился в Ленинграде, но его книги впервые были изданы в Америке, где Довлатов жил с 1979 года. Русские читатели смогли познакомиться с ними только в начале 1990-х годов. Сегодня трудно представить, с каким досадным опозданием пришла к писателю настоящая известность, - настолько органично его произведения вошли в нашу жизнь. "Заповедник", "Иностранка", "Наши", "Чемодан", "Лишний" - эти и другие повести и рассказы, написанные в фирменной довлатовской манере, соединяющей юмор с драмой, легкость бытия с тяжестью повседневности, теперь изучаются в школе и вузах. За двадцать лет переизданий простодушный рассказчик превратился в классика и последнего культурного героя советской эпохи.
Миникнига
Формат: 70x84/32 (105x170 мм)
Sergej Dovlatov - odin iz naibolee populjarnykh russkikh pisatelej kontsa XX veka. On rodilsja v Leningrade, no ego knigi vpervye byli izdany v Amerike, gde Dovlatov zhil s 1979 goda. Russkie chitateli smogli poznakomitsja s nimi tolko v nachale 1990-kh godov. Segodnja trudno predstavit, s kakim dosadnym opozdaniem prishla k pisatelju nastojaschaja izvestnost, - nastolko organichno ego proizvedenija voshli v nashu zhizn. "Zapovednik", "Inostranka", "Nashi", "Chemodan", "Lishnij" - eti i drugie povesti i rasskazy, napisannye v firmennoj dovlatovskoj manere, soedinjajuschej jumor s dramoj, legkost bytija s tjazhestju povsednevnosti, teper izuchajutsja v shkole i vuzakh. Za dvadtsat let pereizdanij prostodushnyj rasskazchik prevratilsja v klassika i poslednego kulturnogo geroja sovetskoj epokhi.
Minikniga
Format: 70x84/32 (105x170 mm)
