{"title":"Books by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780141198590","title":"There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In","description":"\u003cp\u003eHere are attempts at human connection, both depraved and sublime, and the grinding struggle to survive against the crushing realities of the Soviet system: in \u003ci\u003eAmong Friends\u003c\/i\u003e, a doting mother commits an atrocious act against her beloved son in an attempt to secure his future; \u003ci\u003eThe Time: Night \u003c\/i\u003eexamines the suicide of the great Russian poetess Anna Andreevna with heartbreaking clarity; while in \u003ci\u003eChocolates with Liqueur \u003c\/i\u003ethe struggle for ownership of an apartment between a nurse and a madman turns murderous. With the satirical eye of Cindy Sherman, the psychological perceptiveness of Dostoevsky, and the bleak absurdities of Beckett, Petrushevskaya blends macabre spectacle with transformative moments of grace and shows just why she is Russia's preeminent contemporary fiction writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of Russia's best living writers ... her tales inhabit a borderline between this world and the next - \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLudmilla Petrushevskaya was born in Moscow in 1938 and is the only indisputable canonical writer currently writing in Russian today. She is  the author of more than fifteen collections of prose, among them this short novel \u003ci\u003eThe Time: Night\u003c\/i\u003e, shortlisted for the Russian Booker  Prize in 1992, and \u003ci\u003eSvoi Krug\u003c\/i\u003e, a modern classic about 1980s Soviet intelligentsia. Petrushevskaya is equally important as a  playwright: since the 1980s her numerous plays have been staged by the  best Russian theater companies. In 2002, Petrushevskaya received  Russia's most prestigious prize, The Triumph, for lifetime achievement. She lives in Moscow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224770294133,"sku":"9780141198590","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141198590_c78c1819-878e-467b-b19c-d3bdeecc5562.jpg?v=1786011016"},{"product_id":"9780718192075","title":"There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales","description":"\u003cp\u003eA woman  finds herself filling a pit in the forest in the middle of the night; a  family lock each other in their bedrooms to battle a strange plague; a  wizard punishes two beautiful ballerinas by turning them into one hugely  fat circus performer; a colonel is warned not to lift the veil from his  dead wife's face; and a distraught father brings his daughter back to  life by eating human hearts in his dreams. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn these blackly comic tales of revenge, disturbing deaths and haunting melancholy,  Ludmilla Petrushevskaya blends miracles and madness in the darkest of  modern fairy tales.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296629404021,"sku":"9780718192075","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780718192075_ecbabcdf-04af-4b89-9529-3f18a75af661.jpg?v=1786014627"},{"product_id":"9780141198583","title":"There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, And He Hanged Himself: Love Stories","description":"In these dark, dreamlike love stories with a twist, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya tells of strange encounters in claustrophobic communal apartments, ill-fated holiday romances, office trysts, schoolgirl crushes, tentative courtships, rampant infidelity, tender devotion and terrifying madness. By turns sly and sweet, earthy and sublime, these fables of flawed love blend black humour and macabre spectacle with transformative moments of grace.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311570956661,"sku":"9780141198583","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141198583_338fc2e1-fab2-4453-9ba3-dbf385c33f48.jpg?v=1786011015"},{"product_id":"9781646051038","title":"The New Adventures of Helen","description":"\u003cp\u003e“One of Russia’s best living writers . . . Her tales inhabit a borderline between this world and the next.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt first glance, the stories in \u003ci\u003eThe New Adventures of Helen\u003c\/i\u003e seems simple, even child-like, but a deep reading reveals satire and darkness manifested through classic fairy tale tropes characteristically upended by Petrushevskaya. These “adult fairy tales” ask deep questions about gender, love, history, memory, and the future, taking place in times between history and the now. These stories, quirky but yet inspired by a confident hopefulness, will inspire and provoke English-speaking readers across the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312721146229,"sku":"9781646051038","price":14.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781646051038_c6f16f14-5493-4977-a80d-cd48e343a381.jpg?v=1786024822"},{"product_id":"kidnapped-2","title":"Kidnapped","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e  bestselling author and Russia’s greatest living absurdist, comes an elaborate family drama, social satire, and burlesque of twists, coincidences, and hijinks. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eKidnapped\u003c\/i\u003e is a madcap crime spree that caroms from crisis to crisis, through lands real and imagined. It tells the tale of Sergei Sertsov, not one but two boys from Moscow with more than just a name in common, and the women who go  to great lengths to protect them. The story unfurls in a whirlwind of deceit and double crossing—babies are switched at birth, documents forged, palms greased, identities assumed, deaths faked, and authorities duped. Across decades and continents, the narrative veers from a trade office in tropical Handia, to Russia as it plunges through perestroika and into post-Soviet free fall, to a mansion in opulent Montegasco at the start of the twenty-first century. With a dizzying array of characters and settings, \u003ci\u003eKidnapped\u003c\/i\u003e is a hilarious saga of determined women triumphing over their many oppressors to save the people they love.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487900279157,"sku":"9781646052042","price":14.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781646052042.jpg?v=1786355121"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-ludmilla-petrushevskaya.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}