Dark Alleys

«Dark Alleys» — a cycle of love stories written by Bunin in emigration from 1937 to 1945, under conditions of need and isolation. The writer considered it the pinnacle of his creativity, although for many contemporaries, the book turned out to be too bold.

This cycle is about the fleeting, forbidden, sometimes cruel, and always unforgettable feeling, about a sudden encounter that illuminates life for a moment and changes it forever. Love in Bunin's works does not promise happiness, but remains the brightest event in a person's memory. Almost all the stories refer to pre-revolutionary Russia through everyday life, speech, nature, and sensory details, — thus the book about the relationship between a man and a woman also became a book about loss, both personal and historical.