For half of the twentieth century, there were two superpowers in the world and a gulf of silence between them. Americans' knowledge of Russian culture was based on propaganda and rumor, and their knowledge of America was no better. When the Soviet Union fell, Russians began to travel to the U.S. more regularly, and what they discovered was a place very different from the United States they'd imagined, but, at the same time, not exactly the one that Americans think they know, either.

This collection of beautifully written and entertaining literary essays by wide range of Russian writers—young and old, funny and somber, angry and celebratory, many being translated for the first time—offers American readers a unique chance to see themselves as others see them, to perhaps question how the American dream stands up to the American reality, and to experience the wit and generosity of today's Russian writers.