20th century Russian classic
A01=Isaac Babel
Author_Isaac Babel
Babel
best short stories
Books based in Ukraine
Boris Dralyuk
Category=FBC
Category=FYB
Category=FYT
eq_anthologies-novellas-short-stories
eq_bestseller
eq_classics
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
Essential Stories
forthcoming
gangsters literature
greatest short stories
hardboiled literature
Odessa literature
Odessa Stories
Pushkin Collection
Red Cavalry
Russian classic
Russian modern classic
Russian modernism
Ukrainian literature
Product details
- ISBN 9781805332831
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 08 Oct 2026
- Publisher: Pushkin Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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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.
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.
