Glittering Clouds

Almost cut off from the outside world, high in the mountains in a secluded observatory lives an international team of astronomers—and they don’t discover right away that a nightmare of civil war has reached the country that gave them shelter…

A shared story links the fates of representatives of three generations of men and women: a Decembrist and the daughter of the keeper of an old lighthouse, a young naval officer of the Russian Empire, and an elderly married couple—a painter and a charming Finnish girl…

In search of a missing diary, a silent journalist, an energetic captain, and a strong-willed writer travel across the Caucasus and the Black Sea, landing in a tangled and fascinating adventure story…

“Constellation of the Hounds,” “A Northern Tale,” and “Glistening Clouds” are three short stories by Paustovsky—very different in style, but equally marked by a striking sense of language and vivid imagery by one of the most talented Russian writers of the 20th century.