Of Sunshine and Bedbugs
Essential Stories
Will be published approx. on 8. October 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-80533-283-1 (ISBN)
Description
Isaac Babel honed one of the most distinctive styles in all Russian literature. Brashly conversational one moment, dreamily lyrical the next, his stories exult in the richness of everyday speech and sensual pleasure only to be shaken by brutal jolts of violence.
These stories take us from the underworld of Babel's native Odessa, city of gangsters and low-lives, of drunken brawls and bleeding sunsets, to the terror and absurdity of life as a soldier in the Polish-Soviet War. Selected and translated by the prize-winning Boris Dralyuk, this collection captures the irreverence, passion and coarse beauty of Babel's singular voice.
These stories take us from the underworld of Babel's native Odessa, city of gangsters and low-lives, of drunken brawls and bleeding sunsets, to the terror and absurdity of life as a soldier in the Polish-Soviet War. Selected and translated by the prize-winning Boris Dralyuk, this collection captures the irreverence, passion and coarse beauty of Babel's singular voice.
Reviews / Votes
Compact, irreverent, enigmatic, savage and tender... it is impossible to look at the world the same way after reading Babel... one of the enduring jewels of 20th-century Russian literature * Financial Times * Fractured, jarring, beautiful, alive to humour... they have the ring of contemporaneity, and probably always will * Guardian * Unforgettable stories, lyrical and earthy * Irish Times * Marvelously subtle, tragic, and often comic -- James Wood * New Republic * Elegiac, but not in the usual sense: Babel's is an ebullient elegy, filled with violence, sex, and life * LA Review of Books * Following his equally magical renderings of Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry and Odessa Stories in recent years, Mr Dralyuk has positioned himself as a master of the era's language, injecting welcome new life into an under-appreciated school of Russian literature * Economist *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pushkin Press
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80533-283-1 (9781805332831)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Isaac Babel was a short-story writer, playwright, literary translator and journalist. He joined the Red Army as a correspondent during the Russian civil war. The first major Russian-Jewish writer to write in Russian, he was hugely popular during his lifetime. He was murdered in Stalin's purges in 1940, at the age of 45.