His writings in The New Yorker and other prominent periodicals have made him one of the most widely read of Russian émigré authors. In Ours, he traces four generations of Russian family life – and the very course of modern Soviet history – through a portrait of the Dovlatov clan: from Uncle Aron, whose political convictions wavered with his own unstable health; to upstanding Cousin Boris, the family’s pride, who found he was happy only when in trouble with the authorities; to larger-than-life Grandpa Isaak; to the wildly comic story of how Dovlatov met his wife; to off-the-wall tales of parents and cousins, uncles and children, and even the pet dog.In the tradition of the great Russian satirists, featuring the same irreverence and irony for which Dovlatov’s previous works were celebrated, Ours is an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable group self-portrait by one of the freshest voices to emerge from the Soviet Union.

    The prospect of a summer job as a tour guide at the Pushkin Hills Preserve offers him hope of regaining some balance in life as his wife makes plans to emigrate to the West with their daughter Masha, but during Alikhanov’s stay in the rural estate of Mikhaylovskoye, his life continues to unravel.Populated with unforgettable characters—including Alikhanov’s fellow guides Mitrofanov and Pototsky, and the KGB officer Belyaev—Pushkin Hills ranks among Dovlatov’s renowned works The Suitcase and The Zone as his most personal and poignant portrayal of the Russian attitude towards life and art.

    Bethea introduces to the Western reader the life and art of a literary figure described by Vladimir Nabokov as the greatest Russian poet of the twentieth century.Originally published in 1983.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.