[close] The greatest collection by one of the great Russian writers is now back in print. First published in Europe in the 1930s and '40s, these searing, evocative stories by the late émigré writer Nina Berberova (1901-1993) are portraits of the lives of Russian exiles in Paris on the eve of World War II. The protagonists range from housekeepers and waiters to shabby-genteel aristocrats and intellectuals—but all are united in a haunting displacement from their pasts, and all share a troubling uncertainty about the future.

Author Biography: Nina Berberova's life spanned the entire twentieth century from her birth in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1901 to her death in Philadelphia in 1993. She left Russia in 1922, lived in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Italy, and finally settled in Paris in 1925. There she wrote prolifically for publication in the émigré press. With seventy-five dollars in her pocket, she came to the United States in 1951 and, after a series of jobs, worked finally as an instructor at Yale University and later at Princeton. Her work was first introduced to non-Russian readers in French translation and was vastly popular in France. She was honored as a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters. Among her works are The Ladies from St. Petersburg, The Book of Happiness, Cape of Storms (all published by New Directions) and her remarkable autobiography The Italics are Mine.

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