The Red Passport
Stories
By Katherine Shonk
(Picador, Paperback, 9780312423315, 224pp.)
Publication Date: January 23, 2007
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover
Categories: Short Stories (single author)
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A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
Unpredictable, poignant, and often comic, the eight moving stories that make up The Red Passport investigate the impossible hopes and tragic setbacks of natives and foreigners alike in post-Soviet Russia. From "My Mother's Garden," the parable of an old woman who refuses to accept the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, to "The Young People of Moscow," which describes an extraordinary day in the life of an aging couple selling antiquated Soviet poetry in an underground bazaar, these intricately woven narratives provide unforgettable slices of a Russia that is at once both exotic and disconcertingly familiar.
Katherine Shonk was born in Chicago and lives in Evanston, Illinois. Her stories have appeared in Tin House, Story Quarterly, and American Short Fiction, and have been reprinted in Best American Short Stories.
"Katherine Shonk sees these . . . perestroikans with an eye both rueful and ruthless, sympathetic to their dreams even as she sees through them. She writes with the comfortable sense of one who has not only been there but taken a good look around."--The New York Times
"Poignant, unforgettable stories."--Vanity Fair
"A wonderful first collection . . . Among the collection's felicities are Shonk's flights of lyricism."--The Times Literary Supplement (London)
"Spun with grace and deep psychological insight."--Chicago Sun-Times
"Whether you are American or Russian . . . you must read these stories or have them read to you."--Los Angeles Times "Promising . . . These stories [possess] an impressive vitality."--Publishers Weekly
"These stories are charming and alarming."--Library Journal
"Traditionally structured, seamlessly executed" --Poets & Writers "The Red Passport is an absorbing look at a fast changing Russia--I loved it. This is smart and generous work, and Katherine Shonk has a voice all her own."--Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook
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