The Grassy Street (Vol.18 of the GLAS Series)

The portrait of a moldering Moscow outskirt, The Grassy Street chronicles ordinary life in a typical Soviet suburb in the 1940's. Unsavory stuff by any standard, but fascinating for the picture Eppel paints--with his remarkable tenderness, humor, and even ebullience.

"How is it possible that the work of this brilliant, cultivated writer with his noble sense of humor and eternal Jewish anguish, with his all embracing compassion for people combined with his merciless insight into their true nature, was unknown? In my opinion, Asar Eppel is the best Russian writer today." --Ludmilla Pertrushevskaya, author of The Time: Night

"Eppel introduces us to the world of Ostankino, transformed after the Revolution from an elegant country spot into a dustheap of peoples all nationalities with a touch of Jewish blood. Eppel was one of those people which is why his writing is so penetrating: it is not just talent but also love. His stories are modern classics, some of them comparable to the best of Chekhov." --Andrei Sergeev, winner of the 1996 Russian Booker Prize

"In the erotic encounter of a couple in a vile barracks ("Red Caviar Sandwiches"), it is not so much the sordid environment that one retains, despite an obliging description, as the meeting, 'celebrating with muffled sobs our triumph over the foul surround'--this is the genius and the miracle of Asar Eppel: to impose life in the midst of social disaster and the ruin of self." --Christian Mouze, La Quinzaine Litteraire