Natalya Klyucharyova’s new book—the author of the acclaimed novels “Russia: General Carriage” and “SOS”—includes the novella “Village of Fools” and the essay cycle “Wooden Sun.” The hero of the novella, a young historian named Mitya, decides to work as a village schoolteacher in the village of Mitino. A village like any other, and its residents seem ordinary too—old-timers who remember the war, the local priest, amorous high-school girls, and the local harlot, Lyubka… But farther beyond the village stood the mysterious village of fools, a place the locals were afraid even to think about. And Mitya had to come face to face with real—unwritten—history…