“The factory was like a living thing. It breathed, it pulsed, it grew.” Chapter 1: The Hiring Process The novel opens with an unnamed protagonist, a recent graduate […]
German literature
The Metamorphosis
“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” Chapter 1 Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, […]
Russian literature
The Queue
“The line is life itself.” The Queue by Vladimir Sorokin is an experimental novel that captures the absurdity and monotony of Soviet life through the lens of people […]
Russian literature
The Good News
“Life is given to man only once, and one must live it so as not to be painfully ashamed of the years spent meaninglessly…” Chapter 1: The Departure […]
Russian literature
Moscow-Petushki
“Everything in this world is drinkable—only some things must be filtered first.” Moscow-Petushki (also known as Moscow to the End of the Line) is a surreal, darkly comic […]
Russian literature
The Plummeting Old Women
“An old woman, driven by curiosity, leaned out of the window—and then she plummeted.” Chapter 1: The First Old Woman The story opens with an elderly woman peering […]
Russian literature
Blue Notebook No. 10
“There was a redheaded man who had no eyes or ears. He had no hair either, so he was called a redhead only in a manner of speaking.” […]
Russian literature
The Old Woman
“And so I sit, an old woman, in my room, and outside the window, the world goes on without me.” Chapter 1: The Old Woman’s Routine The story […]
Russian literature
Today I Wrote Nothing
“I am interested only in ‘nonsense’; only in that which makes no practical sense. I am interested in life only in its absurd manifestation.” Today I Wrote Nothing […]
Russian literature
Incidences
“A man walked out of his house and disappeared forever.”— Daniil Kharms, Incidences Incidences is a collection of absurdist, fragmented vignettes and short stories by Russian avant-garde writer […]