This collection of stories is composed of short miniatures, many of which the author called 'incidents.' By featuring so prominently in his writing sudden death, falling, accidents, chance violence, Kharms conveys more vividly than any other writer the precarious nature of life in Stalin's Russia. ?Luminous fragments of the avant-garde? TLS ?A puzzlingly beautiful monument to a minor master? Booklist ?With remarkable precision and fluid language, the stories capture everyday tension in a land where an innocent knock on the door might mean entrapment in a bureaucratic maze or even death at the hands of the military? New York Times Book Review