Dreamily beautiful stories from the Wild East. A year ago, I fulfilled a long-held wish and took the train to Petersburg. The individual episodes of this fabulous prose debut tell of a city that has fascinated generations of writers, artists, musicians, and readers. The vibrant city on the Neva, where the splendor of the past mingles with the horrors of the present, serves excellently as a canvas for Schulze's literary fantasies.