One-Story America

In the fall of 1935, Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, correspondents for the newspaper «Pravda» and authors of the books «12 Chairs» and «The Golden Calf», went to America. In three and a half months, they managed to cross the entire country from end to end twice in a brand new «Ford». The result of this trip was the series of essays «One-Story America» — the last work by the co-authors, published as a separate edition in 1937. Apparently, they were expected to produce a scathing satire on capitalist society, but what emerged was a kind and thoughtful book that tells about the life and everyday life of Americans, their encounters with a wide variety of people, full of interesting stories and observations.