Last Friday, Restless Books teamed up with the Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends committee, Karloff Restaurant in Cobble Hill, and two wonderful writers, Hamid Ismailov and Boris Fishman, for a truly remarkable evening. Fueled by a splendid multi-course meal (and a an exotic flight of infused vodkas), the authors and the crowd discussed Russian literature and ideas, and ideas and literature in Russia. Friends were made, food was shared, and a wonderful time was had by all! Be sure to check out Ismailov's fantastic novel The Underground (now available in print!) to see what the fuss was all about.

Ismailov, author of two novels from Restless Books—The Underground and The Railway (coming spring 2015)—was driven from his native Uzbekistan for his “unacceptably democratic tendencies.” Fishman is the acclaimed author of the novel A Replacement Life and editor of Wild East: Stories from the Last Frontier.

Featured

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Edited by Ilan Stavans

In this rich, eye-opening, and uplifting anthology, dozens of esteemed writers, poets, artists, and translators from more than thirty countries send literary dispatches from life during the pandemic. A portion of proceeds benefit booksellers in need.

World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translation of 2020

Paperback • ISBN: 9781632063021
Publication date: Aug 25, 2020

The Underground

by Hamid Ismailov

Translated from the Russian by Carol Ermakova

Named one of “the best Russian novels of the 21st Century” (Continent Magazine), The Underground is the unforgettable story of an abandoned mixed-race boy navigating the wondrous and terrifying city of Moscow before the Soviet Union’s collapse.

Paperback ISBN: 9781632060440
Publication date: Sep 22, 2015