The Donkey Should Be Thin: Stories

This time, we present you with Dovlatov’s early stories from the 1980s. A subtle play with genre conventions, unmistakable and recognizable humor, and the blending of literary styles—these characteristic features of Dovlatov’s prose are already very evident in his early texts.

Among the story characters are a wolf from Tambov and Bunin, lost (and not quite sober) friends Shapovalov and Chikvaidze, Captain Chudnovsky and Jean Mare… The world of Sergei Dovlatov’s prose has no geographical boundaries and no clear definitions. It is a space where it is difficult to separate fiction from reality, where everything is mixed up and absurd—exactly what the writer captured so precisely in his 1980s stories, conveying the stuffy and for many hopeless atmosphere of Soviet times.