Roger Pulvers

But I've been reading a lot.

Some books I've translated, yes.

Actually, this year it's three books of translations, one an anthology of my collected short stories and then my autobiography, The Unmaking of an American in Japanese.

So it's been a – actually, it's been a very busy lockdown year.

But I read a lot too.

I've read some really –

books these last few months or last few weeks actually Bruno Schultz's collected stories have been retranslated recently by Madeline Levine and they're absolutely amazing and there's a wonderful book called Black Dragon River by Dominic Ziegler it's a journey down the Amur and takes in all the history of China and Russia and politics and geography and of that part of the world and when is it set when is it set

It's fed throughout history.

It's not a novel.

It's a work of nonfiction.

It's a great book of nonfiction.

Well, Yasnaya Polyana is, which means sort of bright glade or clear glade in Russian, is the home of Tolstoy, where he was born there.

He wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina there.

He died there.

And in fact, he's buried there and his grave even features in the novel.

And it was turned into a museum there.

after his death and in fact it is a museum and it's still during it was a museum when the Germans overran it and it still is a museum today so it's a very special kind of holy site for anybody in Russia or anybody interested in Russian culture around the world.

Some of it.

The shorter works.

I like the short stories.