The thirteenth labour of Hercules: Stories

by Fazil Iskander

Book by Iskander, Fazil, Cook-Horujy, K.M. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 5050024447
• ISBN13: 9785050024442
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Raduga Publishers
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

If you love Bulgakov, you will love Iskander

These short stories, like most of Iskander's tales and fables, take place in his beloved home, the Muslim region of Abkhazia near Georgia. They range over a great deal of territory--growing up, going to school, rembrances of eccentric characters from the Abkhazia of Iskander's youth. Like Bulgakov's satires, however, Iskander's stories also have a more political substrata. Several stories subtly aim their arrows at the Soviet regime. In one story, Forbidden Fruit, a boy who snitches on his sister for eating pork is punished for his actions. In another, One Day in Summer, the story a German tourist tells our narrator about his experiences under the Nazis seems a critique of Soviet responses to Stalin. In still another, Old Crooked Arm, an eccentric outwits both his friends and the Soviet state.These are remarkable fables by one of the greatest Russian writers of our time. I heartilly recommend them. Finally, this is a beautifully produced book by Progress/Raduga, well translated by Robert Dalglish and Kathleen Horujy-Cook