Maxim Osipov is a cardiologist, publisher, and prose writer—recipient of several literary prizes awarded for short fiction. His works have been translated into more than twenty foreign languages. “Sventa” is the most complete collection of Osipov’s novellas, stories, and essays ever published in Russia. In his prose medicine neighbors politics, theatre, music, religious life, life in the province and in emigration, charity—and even chess. Taken together, these works paint a vivid picture of the changes that Russian society underwent over one and a half decades. Despite the lyricism and humor characteristic of Osipov’s prose, his works are full of forebodings of the tragic turns of history that forced the author himself to leave the country.