Delve into the stark and unflinching world of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's short stories. This collection captures the bleak realities of life for women in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, navigating a world of scarcity, betrayal, and despair. Petrushevskaya’s prose is raw and powerful, exposing the dark corners of human nature while still finding glimmers of resilience and love in the most desperate of circumstances. These are not fairytales, but hauntingly real portraits of survival against all odds.