Barcelona Prose

Barcelona Prose is a collection of autobiographical essays by the gifted translator, literary scholar, and dissident, Efim Etkind. These engaging, deeply psychological vignettes capture the reality of daily life and work in the Soviet Union. Unlike other memoirists who have faced hardships, Etkind’s tone is never cruel or embittered. Told through the lens of a practiced scholar, he captures the absurdity of a cultural-political experiment that destroyed his family’s life, his own career, and that of many of his colleagues. By the time of Etkind’s death, he did not rework these essays into a continuous narrative. Originally published in Russian, this first-ever English translation prepared by Etkind’s daughter presents his memoirs as a document of his time, without any changes or abridgements. The editors’ additions are limited to several notes, proofreading of quotes, and checking or inserting the full forms of the characters’ names.