Justified Jealousy

Three decades gathered under one cover. The collection presents the best stories chosen personally by the author.

Andrei Bitov’s prose from the 1960s–1980s became a classic of 20th-century Russian literature, but now it feels like a natural answer to today.

The collection of novellas “Groundless Jealousy” is an analogue of the author’s lifetime edition, which Andrei Georgievich Bitov (1937–2018) compiled with special care. The book is complemented by an autobiographical “Postscript,” written by him at the end of his life.

“I am not a man of the pack. I generally think that a person is not exactly a pack animal. When he leaves it, he becomes a marginal. An artist or a criminal. I was lucky enough to choose the first—but it could have happened that way too. And since I’m still alive, I can’t just pass by life altogether. No, no! It will touch me” (Andrei Bitov).

Contents: From the author

Idler

Garden

Life in Windy Weather

Portrait

Blind Street

Forest

Groundless Jealousy

The Doctor’s Funeral

Taste

A Man in a Landscape

Photo of Pushkin (1799–2099)

Postscript