Restless Books Releases New Books THE UNDERGROUND and THE ISRAELI REPUBLIC

The Underground

by Hamid Ismailov, translated by Carol Ermakova

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"Ismailov belongs to the tradition of Russian satirical novelists, from Gogol to Bulgakov and Platonov."
-The Independent

The story of a half-African, half-Siberian child growing up in the fast-changing Moscow of the 1980s, The Underground has been called one of the "ten best Russian novels of the 21st Century" (Continent Magazine). In this subtle and atmospheric novel, exiled Uzbek author and BBC journalist Hamid Ismailov provides a tour of the Soviet capital, on the surface and beneath, in the years before the fall. Though deeply engaged with great Russian authors of the past-Dostoyevsky, Turgenyev, Gorky, Nabokov, and above all, Pushkin-Ismailov is an emerging master of a new kind of Russian writing that revels in the sordid reality and diverse composition of the country today.

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The Israeli Republic

by Jalal Al-e Ahmad and Samuel Thrope

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"One of Iran's leading writers and social critics." -The New York Times

This book should be required reading for Israelis, Iranians, and anyone interested in the ongoing conflict between them. In 1963, a leading Persian intellectual visited Israel, a place he had studied and revered from afar. In the thriving Jewish State, Jalal Al-e Ahmad saw a model for a possible future Iran. His controversial travelogue, The Israeli Republic, is a record of his idealism, insight, and ultimate disillusionment towards Israel. Far from a historical relic, this surprisingly modern book will change the way you think about current events.

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