"Opulent, playful, and sensual, Polina Barskova's poems have earned her a reputation as the finest Russian poet under forty. While steeped in Russian and classical culture, Barskova's work remains unmistakably contemporary, at once classic and edge - always fresh, new and even startling. A major English-language event, this volume collects poems from seven earlier books as well as from her recent work, all previously untranslated into English. The Zoo In Winter is a remarkable menagerie of poems, of a strange and intoxicating beauty.