{"product_id":"the-essential-fictions-9780810135956","title":"The Essential Fictions","description":"\u003ci\u003eThe Essential Fictions \u003c\/i\u003eoffers contemporary readers seventy-two short stories by one of twentieth-century Russia's premier storytellers, Isaac Babel. This unique volume, which includes Babel's famous \u003ci\u003eRed Cavalry\u003c\/i\u003e series and his \u003ci\u003eOdessa Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, is translated, edited, introduced, and annotated by Val Vinokur, a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow in Translation, and features illustrations by Yefim Ladyzhensky, a painter known for his depictions of everyday life under Soviet rule in Babel's native Odessa.\u003cp\u003eBabel was born in 1894 into multicultural Odessa's thriving Jewish community. Working as a journalist, he witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution and Civil War, and accompanied the Cossack horsemen of the Red Cavalry during the 1920 Polish-Soviet War, distilling these experiences into his fiction. Vinokur highlights Babel's \"horrified hopefulness\" and \"doleful and bespectacled Jewish comedy\" in the face of the bloody conflicts that plagued his generation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the centenary of the revolution that toppled the Romanov tsars, Babel's fictions continue to absorb and fascinate contemporary readers interested in eastern European and Jewish literature as well as the history and politics of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Northwestern University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/15\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780810135956\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 424\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 6.00w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/15\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eForeword\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/26\/2017\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Isaac Babel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43799822205109,"sku":"9780810135956","price":21.25,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_42bd22c7-afce-4e8b-a532-2a22e505b8d9.jpg?v=1711478972","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-essential-fictions-9780810135956","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}