The ten authors, all very well-known to Soviet readers, cover a wide range of subject matter, from provincial tragedy, to family drama treated with a startling frankness, to avant garde satire, to a new kind of historical saga.
Contents: Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, "Our Crowd"; Fazil Iskander, "Old Hasan's Pipe"; Mikhail Kuraev, "Captain Dikshtein"; Tatyana Tolstaya, "Night"; Vladimir Makanin, "Left Behind"; Nikolai Shmelyov, "The Visit"; Valery Popov, "Dreams from the Top Berth"; Anatoly Genatulin, "Rough Weather"; Viktor Erofeyev, "The Parakeet" and "Anna's Body"; Alexander Golovin, "Anna Petrovna."