Odessa was a uniquely Jewish city, and the stories of Isaac Babel - a Jewish man, writing in Russian, born in Odessa - uncover its tough underbelly. Gangsters, prostitutes, beggars, smugglers: no one escapes the pungent, sinewy force of Babel's pen.
From the tales of the magnetic cruelty of Benya Krik - infamous mob boss, and one of the great anti-heroes of Russian literature - to the devastating semi-autobiographical account of a young Jewish boy caught up in a pogrom, this collection of stories is considered one of the great masterpieces of twentieth-century Russian literature.
Translated with precision and sensitivity by Boris Dralyuk, whose rendering of the rich Odessan argot is pitch-perfect, Odessa Stories is the first ever stand-alone collection of all the stories Babel set in the city - and includes tales from the original collection as well as later ones.
- ISBN10 1782274731
- ISBN13 9781782274735
- Publish Date 1 November 2018 (first published 27 October 2016)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 4 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Pushkin Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 192
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781782274735