Countries That Don't Exist: Selected Nonfiction

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky is now hailed as a master of Russian prose, known for his distinctive blend of metafictional play and philosophical thought experiment. His nonfiction, which spans a range of genres and voices, showcases his idiosyncratic erudition and original vision of literary creation. This collection presents a fresh aspect of a newly canonized author to the English-speaking world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 29 March 2022
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, a writer whose fame only grew after his death, is now celebrated as a master of Russian prose. His short stories and novels, which were deemed unpublishable during Stalinism, have gained recognition for their unique blend of metafictional play and philosophical thought experiments. Similar to Jorge Luis Borges, Krzhizhanovsky also produced unconventional essayistic works that served as a slippery extension of his fictional project.

Countries That Dont Exist offers a curated collection of Krzhizhanovsky's exceptional nonfiction, showcasing a wide range of genres and voices. These include playful fantasies that dwell in the borderlands between essay and fable, metaphysical conversations, probing literary criticism, philosophical essays, and wartime memoirs. Krzhizhanovsky's writing bristles with idiosyncratic erudition and a starkly original vision of literary creation. He emerges as a strange voice from another past, simultaneously novel and unmistakably belonging to the high modernist 1920s and 1930s.

Taken together, these works present a fresh perspective on a newly canonized author. Countries That Dont Exist also includes critical commentary that places these texts within the context of Krzhizhanovsky's other writings and illuminates their relationship to the philosophical and aesthetic ferment of Russian and European modernism.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231202374