Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Chronology: Russia After Stalin
Remarks from an Accomplice
Part One: The Consolation of Apocalypse
Snatches of Street Noise and Kitchen Conversations (1991–2001)
Ten Stories in a Red Interior
On the Beauty of Dictatorship and the Mystery of Butterflies Crushed Against the Pavement
On Brothers and Sisters, Victims and Executioners…and the Electorate
On Cries and Whispers…and Exhilaration
On the Lonely Red Marshal and Three Days of Forgotten Revolution
On the Mercy of Memories and the Lust for Meaning
On a Different Bible and a Different Kind of Believer
On the Cruelty of the Flames and Salvation from Above
On the Sweetness of Suffering and the Trick of the Russian Soul
On a Time When Anyone Who Kills Believes That They Are Serving God
On the Little Red Flag and the Smile of the Axe
Part Two: The Charms of Emptiness
Snatches of Street Noise and Kitchen Conversations (2002–2012)
Ten Stories in the Absence of an Interior
On Romeo and Juliet…Except Their Names Were Margarita and Abulfaz
On People Who Instantly Transformed After the Fall of Communism
On a Loneliness That Resembles Happiness
On Wanting to Kill Them All and the Horror of Realizing That You Really Wanted to Do It
On the Old Crone with a Braid and the Beautiful Young Woman
On a Stranger’s Grief That God Has Deposited on Your Doorstep
On Life the Bitch and One Hundred Grams of Fine Powder in a Little White Vase
On How Nothing Disgusts the Dead and the Silence of Dust
On the Darkness of the Evil One and “the Other Life We Can Build Out of This One”
On Courage and What Comes After
Notes from an Everywoman
Translator’s Acknowledgments
About the Author