SOLVED. Translated Scifi Novel (possibly Russian or such) consisting of short stories about two government investigators [s]

[Abhishek]

I read this English scifi novel in 90s that was translated apparently from possibly Russian or some such. The stories set in near future, were linked and were about a pair of government agents/investigators, who were assigned jobs/missions to carry out.

The first story I remember was about their investigating the death of a scientist. Apparently he was trying to woo the girlfriend of another colleague, and claimed that he could walk through walls for her. She brushes him off saying she might consider him if he actually does so. The scientist was actually working on a portal device and uses it to project himself through a wall of her apartment, professing his love. Unfortunately the device explodes and he dies. The twist ending has the girl falling for the dead guy in the end, and mourning him.

The second story I recall was a computer being able to project social happiness index, and also predict how it can be increased. They are assigned the task of going and delivering a certain message to a couple which will cause them to break up, but will result in sending the happiness index of the society through the roof. They however are unable to carry out the assignment upon meeting the couple and seeing how much hopelessly in love they are with each other.

The other story I remember concerned their investigating a long dead poet for some reason. The poem which I recall started as "welcomed by all, I am banished everywhere" and another line somewhere in the body "rich as a worm with rainement on".

The final story in the novel consisted of one of the duo being involved in some sort of explosion/accident and losing the will to live, and the his partner somehow convincing him to fight.

Appreciate any info on this.

[Kris]

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky and Stanisław Lem are a few authors who turned up while searching.

Abhishek, about how many short stories are in this science fiction book? It sounds like these stories are written by the same author.

[Abhishek]

Hi Kris, I will go through the books of these authors. The stories were presented as individual decent-sized chapters. Something similar to Isaac Asimov's short stories. Yes, they were by the same author. Must have been around 8-10 of these stories.
The above two authors don't seem to match, but still going over the list of their works

[Abhishek]

An update.

So apart from the episode about the scientist walking through walls via device, I finally recalled yet another detail about the storyline regards the dead poet. It was Francois Villon. His poem "I die of thirst beside fountain" was quoted in the novel.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/b...

The only other aspect was ofcourse the concept of computers manipulating events to increase "community happiness index".

Any suggestions guys as to identity of this novel?

[Abhishek]

Finally managed to solve this myself.
The book was titled Ambassador without Credentials by Sergei Snegov (translated by Alex Miller) ISBN 5-05-002490-0.

The story about the community happiness index increase by manipulating individual pairings was called "The Happiness Machine". I would highly recommend it.

[SamSpayedPI]

Ambassador Without Credentials for the link.

Glad you found your book, Abhishek!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

That is terrific.