Titan

When evil is done, but the living remain silent, the dead begin to speak — like in the beginning of “Hamlet,” when the prince sees the spirit of his poisoned father on the fortress wall. The otherworldly realm, which knocks on the mundane, the games of ghosts — they are the voice of the unclean conscience of past generations. “Titan,” the first collection of stories by Sergey Lebedev, consists of 11 tales, varying in time and place, but united by a mystical topography where the restless past, the cruel legacy of totalitarian regimes, is always nearby, just beyond a thin boundary, attempting to testify through the voices of things, places, beasts, and people, seeking retribution and justice.