The thirteen stories in Nina Berberova’s Billancourt Tales were written between 1928 and 1940 and published in the Russian émigré newspaper, The Latest News. All the stories are set in the Billancourt suburb of Paris. Their characters are Russian exiles who, if not for the Bolsheviks, would have happily lived out their lives on Russian soil. Instead, they have found themselves celebrating Bastille Day, auditioning for movie roles, pawning their meager possessions for food, and forced to face ghosts from their pasts. The dated narrator’s voice of these stories, while full of Zoshchenko*-style irony, still manages to ennoble the Russians of Billancourt; their circumstances may be dire, but their hearts burst with anguish and joy recognizable to the most contemporary of reader. One of my favorite stories from this collection is the “The Little Stranger,” a story about a dying woman whose orphaned niece arrives on her doorstep and becomes a surprising source of small comforts. Here’s an excerpt:

“Anastasia Georgievna did not know how to talk to people, and the girl did not tell her any more upsetting stories from her life. She still had the look of someone who has made up her mind to do a lot. Not even at night, in her sleep, did the expression on her little face change. In the mornings she silently straightened the room (she slept on three chairs) and ran out for milk and a roll.”

* Mikhail Zoshchenko, Soviet writer, author of Scenes from the Bathhouse, as well as numerous other works. ( )