It was easy to fall into Karabas, as easy as falling down a hole, but it was hard, to put it bluntly, to get out again. Never mind the zeks, even the soldiers were exiled ...' Deep in the desolate steppe, Captain Khabarov waits out his service at a camp where the news arrives in bundles of last year's papers and rations turn up rotting in their trucks. The captain hopes for nothing more from life than a meagre pension and a state-owned flat. Until, one Spring, he decides to plant a field of potatoes to feed his half-starved men ...This blackly comic novel shows the unsettling consequences of thinking for yourself under the Soviet system. Oleg Pavlov's first novel, published when he was only 24, Captain of the Steppe was immediately praised for its chilling but humane and hilarious depiction of the Soviet Empire's last years. The first in a trilogy, this novel already confirms Pavlov as a worthy successor to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Jake Striker is a tall, handsome lawyer, with light brown hair and storm gray eyes. His wife, Mei, is stunningly beautiful, Mongolian with Chinese ancestry. Both are tied to the secret Changjai Lamasery by an invisible umbilical cord. Jake, who owns a successful law firm in Los Angeles, represents the Lamasery in their dealings in the United States. He also represents the Tu Tung, an ancient order of Chinses assassins. Mei’s best friend is Yanjil, the mother of the child Grand Lama. The Grand Regent has summoned Jake and Mei to the secret Lamasery for an important mission. A Mongolian General is killing people in an attempt to locate the source of his former friend’s gold. His friend is no longer among the living, after having attempted to blackmail the Lamasery for more gold. Unbeknownst to the General, his friend had been sent into the next life by Jake’s former wife, Mei’s sister, who was as fearless as she was beautiful. Jake and Mei, with two Lamasery soldiers, do battle with the General and six of his soldiers while, the Grand Regent spins prayer wheels for them as they’re heavily outnumbered….

Exiled to Siberia In June 1942, the Rudomin family is arrested by the Russians. They are "capitalists -- enemies of the people." Forced from their home and friends in Vilna, Poland, they are herded into crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia. For five years, Ester and her family live in exile, weeding potato fields and working in the mines, struggling for enough food and clothing to stay alive. Only the strength of family sustains them and gives them hope for the future.

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Cutler Walker is on a roll. He just graduated from Air Force pilot training and earned a coveted assignment to train as a fighter pilot, when disaster strikes. He and two others are involved in a horrendous accident, with life changing consequences. His early life could not have foretold this. The second son of an Army officer, his early years were unexceptional in every way. He flourished in college, though he faced a scurrilous attack on his honor, and suffered a falling-out with his father as a result. The accident changed the trajectory of his life and spurred him on his march to manhood. With the Lord as his copilot, Walker overcomes his injuries and faces his future with unbound optimism, and a newfound empathy for others who have had more than One Hard Day.

"The Captain's Daughter" (also known as "The Daughter of the Commandant" or "Marie: A Story of Russian Love") is regarded as Pushkin's best prose work. It was first published in 1836 in the literary journal Sovremennik. This historical novel is dedicated to the events of the Pugachev's Rebellion in Russia in 1773-1775. It tells the story of a 17-years-old officer, Peter Grineff, sent by his father into military service. Peter was assigned to a small fortress of Belogorsk, where he fell in love with Maria, the daughter of the commandant... This edition includes explanatory notes and illustrations of artists of the 18-19th centuries.

The story of Matiushin, a young man damaged by brutality at home and then in the army.