Valeri Brainin-Passek was born in Nizhny Tagil. He received a composer’s education and was a member of the Moscow club “Poezia.” He currently resides in Germany. His poems have been published in various magazines, including Novy Mir and Znamya, and have also been translated into English and published in Partisan Review. His book of poems was published by Aletheia in St. Petersburg.
When Clea returns to London with her new Russian husband, she is surprised to see him become even more eccentric.
A haunting dystopia some readers have called “the new 1984.” In a society where memory is rewritten and resistance is pre-approved, freedom isn’t restricted; it’s redefined. As systems evolve beyond human control and choice becomes a simulation, true defiance means refusing the script, even when the system already knows you will.
“13 short pieces…pungently convey the effects of growing up under a totalitarian regime.” .—Publishers Weekly
Original poetry by Nina Kossman, accompanied by a selection of poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated from Russian by Kossman. “The sea is a postcard,” writes Nina Kossman. There is both something elemental in this vision and—iron-tough.”
—Ilya Kaminsky