The Tattered Cloak and Other Novels

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 emigre 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 intellectualsbut all are united in a haunting displacement from their pasts, and all share a troubling uncertainty about the future.
From Publishers Weekly
Nina Berberova's (1901-1993) The Tattered Cloak, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz, collects six stories dealing with Russian exiles of various backgrounds living in Paris just before World War II. "The Resurrection of Mozart" focuses on a woman anxiously awaiting her husband's return home as she juggles French soldiers, her disabled son and a mysterious vagrant musician. The title story is narrated by Sasha, who moves from Petersburg to Paris with her father and for years is haunted by the memory of her older sister. Berberova has been compared to Chekhov, and these stories glow with a quiet intensity. ( June 26)
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