Fertility and Other Stories

Vsevolod Ivanov’s personal experiences in Siberia and Central Asia during the Revolution and Civil War, set against a childhood and youth wandering that vast expanse, infuse his writing. Combining traditional elements with the fantastic and the surreal, Ivanov’s stories address not only the themes of the Revolution–the dehumanizing effects of famine; the ferment, energy, and uncertainty of the tempestuous times–but also the quotidian: the quiet world of man and nature, and the elemental bond that tied peasants to their native land. Fertility and Other Stories makes available for the first time in English some of the best stories of one of the most talented twentieth-century Russian writers.