Joanne Turnbull’s translations from Russian in collaboration with Nikolai Formozov include Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s Memories of the Future (NYRB Classics), short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award.
Books
The Letter Killers Club
Set in Moscow in the 1920s, this strange tale centers on the doings of a secret society of “Letter Killers”—who meet in a room of empty shelves to enact stories, committing nothing to paper. Krzhizhanovsky is at his philosophical and fantastical best in this extended meditation on madness and silence, the word and the soul unbound.
Memories of the Future
The first English-language collection of stories from a Soviet writer whose mind-bending tales draw comparisons to the works of Poe, Borges, Kafka, and Capek. “Here a natural storyteller, striking intellect, and deeply creative soul are found all in one—a rare combination.”—The Complete Review