Anatoli Rybakov

Anyone know why 1935 and Other Years (a sequel to Children of the Arbat) was never published in English? Every source I've found refers to the Russian publication date and lists all 4 books (Children of the Arbat, 1935 and Other Years, Fear, Dust and Ashes) and before calling it a trilogy...

It was published under that title in 1988 but became the first part of Fear when the latter appeared two years later.

I found one source, Reference Guide to Russian Literature which lists Fear inside the entry for 1935 and Other Years and now I'm curious about the publication history/discussions about why it these two books were seemingly smooshed into one. But at least I no longer feel like there's this part of the story I can't get to

Apparently they were always intended as a single work -- Tridtsat′ pyaty i drugie gody (1935 and other years) was published in the Sept. 1988 issue of the journal Druzhba narodov (where Deti Arbata/Children of the Arbat had appeared in 1987), and Strakh/Fear was originally published as Strakh: Tridtsat′ pyaty i drugie gody 2 (i.e., the second part of "1935 and other years"). For book publication they were of course together, and presumably "Fear" was chosen as a punchier title (with which it's hard to argue).

The publication of this series is fascinating and makes me wish I were a polyglot. I found it as a tetralogy in Dutch and Korean neither of these are languages I know a word in.

I agree that Fear is definitely punchier and it's understandable that they would go with that title. The book is fairly long though and could be considered intimidating just by its sheer length.

Children of the Arbat, Fear and Dust and Ashes are a great trilogy for anyone interested in a fictionalised version of this crucial period of Soviet history. They were pretty hard to get hold off in the pre-internet era when I read them, but I still have my copies.

Yes, I highly recommend them. They were made into a good serial for Russian TV, too, which is great for visualizing the period.

I think I have these - not near my books at the mo but I will check out what editions I have when I am!

>7 languagehat: I started watching that series but my ability to understand spoken Russian is so bad (was never great to begin with) and my copy didn't have sub-titles that I had to stop after a few episodes. Beautiful to watch though. I keep thinking that I should give it another go, that maybe I'll remember more the more I watch but I had to get it through interlibrary loan last time and I have just been lazy about it

Having dug out my copies, they're very mismatched editions! Children of the Arbat is a fat UK paperback from Arrow which came out in 1989. Fear is a Hutchinson UK hardback from 1993. Dust and Ashes is a hardback from 1996 - I think it's a US Little, Brown edition and I don't know if there was ever a UK edition. I had to track them all down second hand online. Really , they're crying out for nice new editions. They *are* very long which is why I haven't read them yet.... 😁