A Present Past

Memories of the Soviet era emerge through relics, landmarks, and fantastical occurrences in this satisfying collection from Lebedev (The Year of the Comet). In “The Obelisk,” a kindly strongman is tasked with maintaining the ostentatious grave site of a family friend, only to realize the man’s professional success was the result of his profound corruption. The villagers of the “The Barn” have forgotten about what happened to their Jewish neighbors—until a mute child begins to probe the secrets sitting in plain view. In the standout “St. Anthony’s Fire,” an antiques dealer comes across a case once used for collecting visitors’ calling cards, prompting him to have a vision of the NKVD exploiting it to hunt down people with ties to the prerevolutionary world. Inexplicable natural phenomena feature in “The Night is Bright Tonight” and “The Singer on the Bridge,” in which the spirits of people murdered by repressive governments enact revenge. Lebedev adds vibrant lyrical descriptions to the strange interplay of past and present, as when the narrator of “The Barn” imagines time collapsing “like the play of light and shadow in the fading foliage.” There’s a real payoff to these rich and ambiguous stories. (Apr.)