Kolyma Tales

by Shalamov, Varlam (Author); Glad, John (Translator)

• ISBN13: 9780140186956
• ISBN10: 0140186956
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-02-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

It is estimated that some three million people died in the Soviet forced-labour camps of Kolyma, in the north-eastern area of Siberia. Shalamov himself spent seventeen years there, and in these stories he vividly captures the lives of ordinary people caught up in terrible circumstances, their hopes and plans extending no further than a few hours.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Kolyma Tales
Through the Snow	3	(2)
On Tick	5	(6)
In the Night	11	(4)
Carpenters	15	(6)
An Individual Assignment	21	(4)
A `Pushover' Job	25	(6)
Dry Rations	31	(17)
The Injector	48	(2)
The Apostle Paul	50	(7)
Berries	57	(4)
Tamara the Bitch	61	(7)
Cherry Brandy	68	(8)
A Child's Drawings	76	(4)
Condensed Milk	80	(6)
The Snake Charmer	86	(7)
The Golden Taiga	93	(6)
Vaska Denisov, Kidnapper of Pigs	99	(4)
A Day Off	103	(4)
Dominoes	107	(7)
Shock Therapy	114	(12)
The Lawyers' Plot	126	(21)
Typhoid Quarantine	147	(26)
The Left Bank
The Procurator of Judea	173	(4)
The Lepers	177	(7)
Descendant of a Decembrist	184	(16)
Committees for the Poor	200	(17)
Magic	217	(5)
A Piece of Meat	222	(10)
Esperanto	232	(9)
Major Pugachov's Last Battle	241	(16)
The Used-Book Dealer	257	(18)
Lend-Lease	275	(9)
Sententious	284	(11)
The Virtuoso Shovelman
The Seizure	295	(3)
An Epitaph	298	(16)
Handwriting	314	(6)
The Businessman	320	(5)
Captain Tolly's Love	325	(11)
In the Bathhouse	336	(7)
The Green Procurator	343	(37)
My First Tooth	380	(8)
Prosthetic Appliances	388	(4)
The Train	392	(13)
Essays on the Criminal World
The Red Cross	405	(10)
Women in the Criminal World	415	(20)
Resurrection of the Larch
Quiet	435	(8)
Grishka Logun's Thermometer	443	(8)
Chief of Political Control	451	(5)
The Life of Engineer Kipreev	456	(19)
Mister Popp's Visit	475	(12)
The Theft	487	(2)
The Letter	489	(6)
Fire and Water	495	(8)
Graphite	503