This unique collection of Solzhenitsyn's little known shorter fiction includes some of his most perfect and poignant stories. Amongst them, the title story, What a Pity, has been virtually unknown and his published here by the author's special permission. The book is aimed at the advanced student in Russian, who will find the generous textual notes an invaluable guide to steering through the difficulties attending any reading of the original. All aspects are considered: factual, textual, linguistic and artistic and a large glossary includes the idiosyncratic usage which is so prominent in Solzhenitsyn's literary expression.

The scholarly introduction discusses the most important aspects of his artistic principles and style and outlines Solzhenitsyn's life up to his 1994 return to his native land in a slow westward journey of vast Siberian distances. The conclusion of the stories makes them ideal for study of the writer's art, in structural and thematic control and this edition gives the student access to the choicest works of the best Russian writer of his generation.