There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself

Love stories, with a twist, by Russia’s preeminent contemporary fiction writer—the author of the prizewinning memoir about growing up in Stalinist Russia, The Girl from the Metropol Hotel
 
By turns sly and sweet, burlesque and heartbreaking, these realist fables of women looking for love are the stories that Ludmilla Petrushevskaya—who has been compared to Chekhov, Tolstoy, Beckett, Poe, Angela Carter, and even Stephen King—is best known for in Russia.
 
Here are attempts at human connection, both depraved and sublime, by people across the life span: one-night stands in communal apartments, poignantly awkward couplings, office trysts, schoolgirl crushes, elopements, tentative courtships, and rampant infidelity, shot through with lurid violence, romantic illusion, and surprising tenderness. With the satirical eye of Cindy Sherman, Petrushevskaya blends macabre spectacle with transformative moments of grace and shows just why she is Russia’s preeminent contemporary fiction writer.

Acclaim for There Once Lived A Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, And He Hanged Himself

“Think Chekhov writing from a female perspective. . . . Petrushevskaya’s short stories transform the mundane into the near surreal, pausing only to wink at the absurdity of it all.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Full of meaningful, finely crafted detail, this story collection set in Russia manages to tackle the grimmest of situations head-on with compassion and a great deal of warmth.”

—Publishers Weekly

Acclaim for There Once Lived A Woman

Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby

“Arresting...Incantatory...Timeless and troubling...This exquisite collection [is] vital, eerie and freighted with the moral messages that attend all cautionary tales. [Petrushevskaya] is hailed as one of Rus­sia’s best living writers. This slim volume shows why. Again and again, in surprisingly few words, her witchy magic foments an unsettling brew of conscience and consequences.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“If there’s any justice, this humble paperback will be greeted as the pinnacle of modern literature that it is—but as Petrushevskaya would be the first to say, to hope for justice is to invite mockery. Better just to keep your head down and write . . . like this.”

—Elle

“Her suspenseful writing calls to mind the creepiness of Poe

and the psychological acuity (and sly irony) of Chekhov.”

—More

“The fact that Ludmilla Petrushevskaya is Russia’s premier writer of fiction today proves that the literary tradition that produced Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and Babel is alive and well.”

—Taylor Antrim, The Daily Beast

“Petrushevskaya’s short stories—which use fairy tale imagery and allegory to comment on Russia’s Soviet past and corrupt present—combine Gogol’s depth of absurdity and Shirley Jackson paranoia, to disturbing effect...The rise of the tightly constructed ‘weird’ tales of Petrushevskaya, Victor Pelevin and Tatyana Tolstaya suggests a secure Soviet literary future.”

—NPR.org

“A revelation—like reading late-Tolstoy fables, with all of the master’s directness and brutal authority, but set in an alternative reality which has a just-recognizable Soviet bleakness. A wonderful book.”

—The New Yorker

“Anything but dull, the stories twist and peak in odd places. They create nooks

in which the reader can sit and think: What does this mean?”

—Los Angeles Times

“What distinguishes the author is her compression of language,

her use of detail and her powerful visual sense.”

—Time Out New York

“The book could catch fire in your hands and you'd still try to be turning pages.

It's giving me nightmares, in the nicest way possible.”

—Bookslut

“A master of the Russian short story.”

—Olga Grushin, author of The Dream Life of Sukhanov

“There is no other writer who can blend the absurd and the

real in such a scary, amazing and wonderful way.”

—Lara Vapnyar, author of There Are Jews in My House

“One of the greatest writers in Russia today and a vital force

in contemporary world literature.”

—Ken Kalfus, author of A Disorder Peculiar to the Country

“A master of the short story form, a kindred spirit to writers like

Angela Carter and Yumiko Kurahashi.”

—Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen

“Petrushevskaya’s bold, no-nonsense portrayals find fresh, arresting expression in this excellent translation.”

—Publishers Weekly

“The auras of Samuel Beckett and the baleful Albanian magic realist Ismail Kadare blend in Petrushevskaya’s work.”

—Booklist (Starred Review)