In the first Online Reading Group of the year we will discuss Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov, translated by Donald Rayfield. This masterpiece of twentieth-century literature is an epic array of short fictional tales reflecting the fifteen years that Varlam Shalamov spent in the Soviet Gulag.

The meeting will be held on Zoom and facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In the first Reading Group of the year we will discuss Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov, translated by Donald Rayfield. This masterpiece of twentieth-century literature is an epic array of short fictional tales reflecting the fifteen years that Varlam Shalamov spent in the Soviet Gulag.

The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, one of Ukraine’s most prominent contemporary authors. It tells the story of a beekeeper living in the Donbas grey zone between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists following the 2014 invasion.

The meeting will be held on Zoom and facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, one of Ukraine’s most prominent contemporary authors. It tells the story of a beekeeper living in the Donbas grey zone between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists following the 2014 invasion.

The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Contemporary Georgian Fiction, a landmark anthology bringing together stories from nineteen of the most influential contemporary authors to have emerged from the Republic of Georgia.

The meeting will be held on Zoom and facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Contemporary Georgian Fiction, a landmark anthology bringing together stories from nineteen of the most influential contemporary authors to have emerged from the Republic of Georgia.

The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss Soviet Milk by Latvian author Nora Ikstena. A bestseller which took the Baltics by storm, it explores the effects of Soviet rule on individual lives, told through the dual narratives of a mother and daughter in 1970s and 1980s Latvia.

The meeting will be held on Zoom and facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Soviet Milk by Latvian author Nora Ikstena. A bestseller which took the Baltics by storm, it explores the effects of Soviet rule on individual lives, told through the dual narratives of a mother and daughter in 1970s and 1980s Latvia.

The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, Doctor Zhivago is the epic story of the life and loves of Yuri Zhivago during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and is considered one of the greatest love stories ever told.

The meeting will be held on Zoom and facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. Banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, Doctor Zhivago is the epic story of the life and loves of Yuri Zhivago during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, and is considered one of the greatest love stories ever told.

The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss Jamilia by Chingiz Aïtmatov, a love story set in a remote village in Kyrgyzstan against the background of the Second World War. Jamilia portrays the struggle between patriarchal and tribal traditions and Soviet ideology, between family and independence, hope in desperate circumstances, and a love for one’s homeland described in Aïtmatov’s stunning evocation of the Kyrgyz landscape. The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Jamilia by Chingiz Aïtmatov, a love story set in a remote village in Kyrgyzstan against the background of the Second World War. Jamilia portrays the struggle between patriarchal and tribal traditions and Soviet ideology, between family and independence, hope in desperate circumstances, and a love for one’s homeland described in Aïtmatov’s stunning evocation of the Kyrgyz landscape.

The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss Soul and Other Stories, a collection of eight works by Andrey Platonov centred around the title novella, Soul. This prizewinning English translation was the first to be based on the newly available, uncensored texts of Platonov’s short fiction, and reveals a rediscovered master of twentieth century Russian literature at his wisest, most symbolic and humane. The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Soul and Other Stories, a collection of eight works by Andrey Platonov centred around the title novella, Soul. This prizewinning English translation was the first to be based on the newly available, uncensored texts of Platonov’s short fiction, and reveals a rediscovered master of twentieth century Russian literature at his wisest, most symbolic and humane.

The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss The Railway, by Uzbek journalist and author Hamid Ismailov. The novel was written before Ismailov fled political persecution in Uzbekistan in the 1990s, and his work remains banned in Uzbekistan today.

The Railway explores the dramatic changes that swept Central Asia in the early twentieth century, focussing on the mosaic of ethnic groups who live in the town of Gilas on the ancient Silk Road, and the social, political and religious tensions that emerge between the townspeople and Soviet authorities.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss The Railway, by Uzbek journalist and author Hamid Ismailov. The novel was written before Ismailov fled political persecution in Uzbekistan in the 1990s, and his work remains banned in Uzbekistan today.

The Railway explores the dramatic changes that swept Central Asia in the early twentieth century, focussing on the mosaic of ethnic groups who live in the town of Gilas on the ancient Silk Road, and the social, political and religious tensions that emerge between the townspeople and Soviet authorities.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss The Mountain and the Wall, the debut novel by Alisa Ganieva and the first Dagestani novel to be published in English, which tells the story of the decline of a society torn apart by its inherent extremes and the lives of people forced to choose between evils.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss The Mountain and the Wall, the debut novel by Alisa Ganieva and the first Dagestani novel to be published in English, which tells the story of the decline of a society torn apart by its inherent extremes and the lives of people forced to choose between evils.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss Zuleikha, the debut novel by the Tatar-Russian writer Guzel Yakhina. Based on the experiences of Yakhina’s grandmother, who was forcibly relocated to Siberia as part of Stalin’s dekulakisation programme in the 1930s, the story explores the individual lives caught up in one of the greatest tragedies of Soviet history, as well as the identity and culture of Russia’s Tatars. Zuleikha is a story of injustice and pain, but also of a woman's emancipation and strength.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Zuleikha, the debut novel by the Tatar-Russian writer Guzel Yakhina. Based on the experiences of Yakhina’s grandmother, who was forcibly relocated to Siberia as part of Stalin’s dekulakisation programme in the 1930s, the story explores the individual lives caught up in one of the greatest tragedies of Soviet history, as well as the identity and culture of Russia’s Tatars.

In this month’s Online Reading Group we will discuss Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. Considered one of Chekhov’s finest plays, it is a darkly comedic study on aimlessness, disappointment and existential ennui set on a country estate in late nineteenth-century Russia. The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

In this month’s Reading Group we will discuss Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. Considered one of Chekhov’s finest plays, it is a darkly comedic study on aimlessness, disappointment and existential ennui set on a country estate in late nineteenth-century Russia. The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

Join us for the first Online Reading Group of the year, where we will discuss Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. Dead Souls is considered to be Russia's first major novel and is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction. A devastating satire of social pretensions and provincial life, and a remorseless portrayal of the corruption of Russian society, since its publication Dead Souls has been hailed as one of the funniest and most brilliant novels of 19th-century Russian literature.

Join us for the first Reading Group meeting of the year, where we will discuss Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol. Dead Souls is considered to be Russia's first major novel and is one of the most unusual works of nineteenth-century fiction. A devastating satire of social pretensions and provincial life, and a remorseless portrayal of the corruption of Russian society, since its publication Dead Souls has been hailed as one of the funniest and most brilliant novels of 19th-century Russian literature.

In this month’s Online Reading Group, we will discuss Living Pictures by Polina Barskova. Growing up in Leningrad, Polina Barskova saw no trace of the estimated million people who died in the city during the Nazi blockade of 1941-44. As one of Russia’s most admired and controversial contemporary writers, she has repeatedly returned to the archive of texts still being recovered from the siege, finding creative ways to commemorate these ghosts from her home city’s past. A chorus of the voices and stories of those lost in the siege appears in Living Pictures, a breathtakingly inventive literary collage of memoir, archival material and fiction.

Join us for the next Reading Group meeting, where we will discuss Living Pictures by Polina Barskova. Growing up in Leningrad, Polina Barskova saw no trace of the estimated million people who died in the city during the Nazi blockade of 1941-44. As one of Russia’s most admired and controversial contemporary writers, she has repeatedly returned to the archive of texts still being recovered from the siege, finding creative ways to commemorate these ghosts from her home city’s past. A chorus of the voices and stories of those lost in the siege appears in Living Pictures, a breathtakingly inventive literary collage of memoir, archival material and fiction.

In this month’s Online Reading Group, we will discuss Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov. Dovlatov is one of the most popular Soviet writers of the late-20th century, yet is largely unknown outside Russia. This is a chance to read arguably his most personal work, Pushkin Hills, published for the first time in English in translation by his daughter, Katherine Dovlatov. The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and community engagement curator Alisa Oleva.

Join us for the next Reading Group meeting, where we will discuss Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov. Dovlatov is one of the most popular Soviet writers of the late-20th century, yet is largely unknown outside Russia. This is a chance to read arguably his most personal work, Pushkin Hills, published for the first time in English in translation by his daughter, Katherine Dovlatov.

In this month’s online reading group, we will discuss Deceit by Yuri Felsen. Felsen was a leading modernist writer of the interwar Russian diaspora, known by his contemporaries as the ‘Russian Proust’. He evokes in rich, poetic, idiosyncratic prose not only the zeitgeist of interwar Europe and his émigré milieu, but also its psychology and the existential crisis of the age. Felsen died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, his life and legacy destroyed by the Nazis.

Join us for the next Reading Group meeting, where we will discuss Deceit by Yuri Felsen. Felsen was a leading modernist writer of the interwar Russian diaspora, known by his contemporaries as ‘the Russian Proust’. Quite unlike any other writer in the Russian canon, Felsen evokes in rich, poetic, idiosyncratic prose not only the zeitgeist of interwar Europe and his émigré milieu, but also its psychology and the existential crisis of the age. He died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, his life and legacy destroyed by the Nazis.

Deceit is Felsen’s debut novel, published for the first time in English. It is available in our bookshop here. The meeting will be facilitated by our bookshop co-curator Sasha Padziarei and engagement curator Alisa Oleva.