Maxim Osipov

Maksim Osipov - vrach-kardiolog, izdatel', prozaik, laureat neskol'kih literaturnyh premij, prisuzhdaemyh za maluju prozu. Ego sochinenija perevedeny bolee chem na dvadcat' inostrannyh jazykov. "Sventa" - samyj polnyj iz kogda-libo publikovavshihsja v Rossii sbornikov povestej, rasskazov i ocherkov Osipova. V ego proze sosedstvujut medicina, politika, teatr, muzyka, religioznaja zhizn', zhizn' v provincii i v jemigracii, blagotvoritel'nost', dazhe shahmaty. Sobrannye vse vmeste, jeti proizvedenija risujut zhivuju kartinu peremen, kotorye proizoshli za poltora desjatiletija s rossijskim obshhestvom. Nesmotrja na prisushhij proze Osipova lirizm i jumor, ego proizvedenija polny predchuvstvij teh tragicheskih povorotov istorii, kotorye zastavili i samogo avtora pokinut' stranu. "Sobytija nedavnie naplyvajut odno na drugoe, slepljajutsja v kuchu, sluchivsheesja smeshivaetsja s nikogda ne byvshim, zato dalekoe - begstvo iz shkoly, ispovedal'naja lodka na beregu, lipa na ulice Pushkina - viditsja blizkim, schastlivym -bezmerno bolee, chem predstavljalos' togda". _______________ Maxim Alexandrovich Osipov born 4 October 1963) is a Russian writer and cardiologist. 1] His short stories and essays have won a number of prizes, and his plays have been staged and broadcast on the radio in Russia. Biography Osipov was born in Moscow and received his medical training at the Russian National Research Medical University. In the early 1990s, he was a research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. Upon returning to Moscow, he continued to practice medicine, co-authored a textbook on clinical cardiology, and founded a publishing house, Practica, which specialized in medical, musical, and theological material. After moving to Tarusa, a town 101 kilometers from Moscow, Osipov began working at the local hospital. He also established a charitable foundation to ensure the hospital's survival and to improve its standard of care.He lived, wrote, and practiced me

A new collection of short fiction and nonfiction by a Russian master of bittersweet humor, dramatic irony, and poignant insights into contemporary life. The town of Tarusa lies 101 kilometers outside Moscow, far enough to have served, under Soviet rule, as a place where former political prisoners and other "undesirables" could legally settle. Lying between the center of power and the provinces, between the modern urban capital and the countryside, Tarusa is the perfect place from which to observe a Russia that, in Maxim Osipov's words, "changes a lot in the course of a decade], but in two centuries--not at all." The stories and essays in this volume--a follow-up to his debut in English, Rock, Paper, Scissors--tackle major questions of modern life in and beyond Russia with Osipov's trademark blend of daring and subtlety. Deceit, political pressure, ethnic discrimination, the urge to emigrate, and the fear of abandoning one's home, as well as myriad generational debts and conflicts, are as complexly woven through these pieces as they are through the lives of Osipov's fellow Russians and through our own. What binds the prose in this volume is not only a set of concerns, however, but also Osipov's penetrating insights and fearless realism. "Dreams fall away, one after another," he writes in the opening essay, "some because they come true, but most because they prove pointless." Yet, as he reminds us in the final essay, when viewed from ground level, "life tends not towards depletion, towards zero, but, on the contrary, towards repletion, fullness."

The first English-language collection of a contemporary Russian master of the short story. Maxim Osipov, who lives and practices medicine in a town ninety miles outside Moscow, is one of Russia's best-regarded writers. In the tradition of Anton Chekhov and William Carlos Williams, he draws on his experiences in medicine to craft stories of great subtlety and striking insight. Rich in compassion but devoid of cheap sentiment, Osipov's fiction presents a nuanced, collage-like portrait of life in provincial Russia -- its tragedies, its infinite frustrations, and its moments of humble beauty and inspiration. The twelve stories in this volume depict doctors, actors and actresses, screenwriters, teachers, entrepreneurs, local political bosses, and common criminals, whose paths intersect in unpredictable yet entirely natural ways: in sickrooms, classrooms, administrative offices, on trains, and in the air. Their encounters lead to disasters, major and minor epiphanies, andrich -- on occasion -- the promise of redemption. "Life is scary, whether you're in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or the provinces," Osipov's narrator tells us in "The Cry of the Domestic Fowl," which opens the collection. And yet, he concludes, " t]he world doesn't break, no matter what you throw at it. That's just how it's built."