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by Maxim Matusevich (Author)
Six Trains of No Return collects twelve short stories and novellas that examine immigrant sagas and dislocations that are both uniquely personal and universal. These are the stories of past lives and loves, memories both fragile and unreliable, and our shared ties to larger historical narratives. They also evoke the Soviet Jewish experience during what was thought to be "The End of History" of the waning days of the USSR. A French-Cambodian woman embarks on a series of mysterious trips to the "killing fields" of her youth, an encounter in a Nigerian jail forces the narrator to face an impossible moral dilemma, a tender friendship grows between three young soldiers drafted into the Soviet army, a story of a young man's chance romantic encounter with a childhood friend and how it triggers memories of long-forgotten schoolyard cruelties, a pair of soldiers in the waning days of the Soviet Union watching the movie Jaws for the first time at a semi-underground video salon. Emotionally resonant yet edged with quiet humor, these stories explore themes of displacement, belonging, and memory-speaking across cultures and backgrounds.
Author Biography
Author Maxim Matusevich, a professor of history at Seton Hall University and a native of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), drew upon his professional expertise and experience as an emigré to the United States in 1991 on the eve of the Soviet Union's dissolution for these stories and novellas. Matusevich's characters come from diverse walks of life, yet they remain unmistakably human--flawed, eccentric, and deeply relatable to anyone who has experienced historical upheaval, immigration, or the slow fading of stability.
