The well-known author’s latest collection of poetry and prose includes new writings, excerpts from existing works, both long and short, and several complete stories, all of which are united by an American theme. Forced to leave the USSR in 1980, Vasily Aksenov spent the following 24 years in the USA, teaching Russian literature and cultural studies in American universities. In American Cyrillic, he attempts to show the ways in which the chronotope of American life serves as an ingredient in the creation of contemporary Russian novels. Avoiding political polemic, Aksenov examines the purely artistic and metaphorical relationships linking the two cultures.

Two books in one, Fragments of Childhood and The Alien Artist introduce us to the world of eminent violinist Gidon Kremer’s childhood. Reminiscing about growing up in Riga, the world famous musician recalls the period between 1965 and 1980. Kremer writes of loss and parting, meetings and discoveries, friends and famous contemporaries (such as Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Kirill Kondrashin). Musing on the musician’s place in the boundless world of music and within the strictly defined limits of states and ideological systems, Kremer discusses pressure and freedom, power and love, the “great mission” of Soviet musicians and the principles governing the free market of musical services.

Lev Rubinstein’s new book is a collection of prose works published over the last few years in the weekly journals Itogi, Politburo and Yezhenedelny Zhurnal. At once essays, memoirs and novellas, these writings tread a fine line between irony and lyricism, now flaunting pointedly subjective views, now entrusting the reader with their secret confidences.
Rubinstein has been writing since the late 1960s. In the mid-1970s he began to develop his own literary genre. Borrowing from oral traditions as well as the fine arts and performance art, this could be described as a kind of card-index. Over the years the well-known Moscow poet and essayist has taken part in numerous poetry and music festivals, art exhibitions and other events. Originals and translations of his works were first published in the West in the late 1970s. A decade later, Rubinstein’s works began to appear in Russia.
Lev Rubinstein is a Liberty prize-winner.