Best Russian short stories

About this book

Russian short fiction fills this anthology, offering readers several distinct stories rather than one continuous narrative. In Tolstoy’s prison tale, Aksionov, held in Siberia for decades, asks a new arrival from Vladimir about the merchants who share his family name. Elsewhere, Lazarus’s stare leaves those who meet it unable to feel the sun or recognize the sky, giving the story an eerie, deathly turn. Among men awaiting hanging, a condemned prisoner jokes with his companions, and the humor makes the danger feel closer.