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Benya Krik, the gangster, and other stories

Benya Krik, the gangster, and other stories

ClassicsCrime
Pages
128
Published
1971
Language
English

Synopsis

This collection of short stories by Isaak Babel plunges into the vibrant, dangerous world of Odessa's Jewish community in the early 20th century. At its heart is Benya Krik, the charismatic and ruthless gangster known as the 'King' of Moldavanka. Babel's vivid prose captures the lives of revolutionaries, criminals, and ordinary people caught in a time of profound social upheaval.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

DarkGrittyMelancholicComplexAtmospheric
Anti-HeroMorally Grey

Genres

Classics Crime Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

About the author

I
Isaac Babel

Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel (Russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель; 13 July) was a Russian writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry and Odessa Stories, and has been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry." Babel was arrested by the NKVD on 15 May 1939 on fabricated charges of terrorism and espionage, and executed on 27 January 1940.