The Reserve

Sergei Dovlatov is one of the most popular and widely read Russian writers of the late 20th century, and he is destined to remain so for a long time. His works are the very great classics that, despite their scale, remain simple, engaging, and accessible to any reader, regardless of age, nationality, or level of literary exposure, or, in Dovlatov's own words, "degree of intellectual fastidiousness." This edition includes the remarkable novella "The Reserve," one of Dovlatov's best books, in which the theme of the superfluous man and the absurdity of human life unfolds against the backdrop of the "Pskov expanses" of the Pushkin Reserve, where the author, among other museum attendants, conducted tours and told tourists about the great poet. The edition also includes novellas and stories by Dovlatov from various years.