An important stylistic force in twentieth-century Russian literature, Boris Pilnyak never shied from controversy. This acclaimed translation collects his major stories, which combine the sexual themes he was known for with his doubt about the Revolution and which led to his persecution and execution during Stalin's purges. "The Nizhni Novgorod Otkos," a frank portrayal of mother-son incest, was taken as a comment on the Revolution of 1917 and is considered the main cause of his demise.