There Is No Moscow

In Alla Gorbunova’s collection of stories, there are none of the familiar Moscow motifs. Inside you’ll find an alien kitten, a philosophy teacher, a migrant worker, mysterious glowing matter, employees of a mobile phone store—as well as mythical leshies and kikimoras. All these stories are united by a common concept: the desire to break out of the familiar boundaries of the world, to turn to innovative thoughts and states, to establish contact with the alien and the unusual. The atmosphere of the texts is strange, sad, and joyful at the same time. Alla Gorbunova, a poet and prose writer from Saint Petersburg, was awarded the Andrei Bely Prize for the book “While the ABC is Burning Out” and the NOS Prize for the collection “The End of the World, My Love.”