Viv Groskop

The art of the short story: what we can learn from the Russians

In a dazzling creative writing masterclass George Saunders examines stories by Chekhov, Gogol, Tolstoy and Turgenev and explains what makes them so great

Illustration for Gogol’s ‘The Nose’ by Léon Bakst, 1904. Credit: Alamy
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  • A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading and Life)

    George Saunders

    Bloomsbury, pp. 256, £16

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Because you read about chekhov

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