Secondhand time: the last of the Soviets

Chronology

Remarks from an accomplice

I. The Consolation of Apocalypse

Snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (1991-2001)

Ten Stories in a Red Interior

On the beauty of dictatorship and the mystery of butterflies in cement

On brothers and sisters, victims and executioners...and the electorate

On cries and whispers...and exhilaration

On the lonely red marshal and three days of forgotten revolution

On the mercy of memories and the lust for meaning

On a different Bible and a different kind of believer

On the cruelty of the flames and salvation from above

On the sweetness of suffering and the trick of the Russian soul

On a time when anyone who kills believes that they are serving God

On the little red flag and the smile of the axe

II. The Charms of Emptiness

Snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (2002-2012)

Ten Stories In The Absence of an Interior

On Romeo and Juliet...except their names were Margarita and Abulfaz

On people who instantly transformed after the fall of communism

On a loneliness that resembles happiness

On wanting to kill them all and the horror of realizing you really wanted to do it

On the old crone with a braid and the beautiful young woman

On a Stranger's Grief that God has deposited on your doorstep

On life the bitch and one hundred grammes of fine powder in a little white vase

On how nothing disgusts the dead and the silence of dust

On the darkness of the evil one and "the other life we can build out of this one"

On courage and what comes after

Notes from an everywoman.

One: The Consolation Of Apocalypse

Two: The Charms of Emptiness.