A selection of Isaac Babel's 26 most vital and beautiful stories, in acclaimed translations by Boris Dralyuk. "Compact, irreverent, enigmatic, savage and tender... one of the enduring jewels of 20th-century Russian literature." --Financial Times Isaac Babel honed one of the most distinctive styles in all Russian literature. Brashly conversational one moment, dreamily lyrical the next, his stories exult in the richness of everyday speech and sensual pleasure only to be shaken by brutal jolts of violence. Divided into 3 major sections for different phases of Babel's life, these 26 stories take us from the underworld of Babel's native Odessa, city of gangsters and lowlives, of drunken brawls and bleeding sunsets, to the terror and absurdity of life as a soldier in the Polish-Soviet War. What emerges is a poignant mediation on why humanity returns again and again to violence, and an unforgettable portrait of the brutal reality of civil conflict. One of the first major Russian-Jewish writers to write in Russian, Babel was hugely popular during his lifetime. He joined the Red Army as a correspondent during the Russian civil war and was later murdered in Stalin's purges in 1940, at the age of 45. Selected and translated by the prize-winning Boris Dralyuk, this collection captures the irreverence, passion and coarse beauty of Babel's singular voice.