Lame Fate Ugly Swans

"Never before translated into English, LAME FATE tells the story of middle-aged author Felix Sorokin, who is asked by the Soviet Writers' Union to submit a writing sample to a new computer program that will scientifically evaluate its "objective value" as a literary work. Sorokin must choose whether to present something establishment-approved or risk sharing his unpublished masterpiece. Sorokin's masterwork is UGLY SWANS, previously published in English as a standalone work but presented here in an authoritative new translation. In it, disgraced literary celebrity Victor Banev returns to the town of his childhood to find it haunted by the mysterious "clammies," black-masked outcasts with supernatural talents who terrify the town's adult population but enthrall its teenagers, including Banev's own daughter. By turns chilling, uproarious, and moving, these intertwining stories from the most celebrated Russian science fiction writers of the Soviet era are sure to delight readers from all walks of life"--