Six Trains of No Return

Author Maxim Matusevich, a professor of history at Seton Hall University and a native of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), drew upon his professional expertise and experience as an emigré to the United States in 1991 on the eve of the Soviet Union’s dissolution for these stories and novellas. Matusevich’s characters come from diverse walks of life, yet they remain unmistakably human—flawed, eccentric, and deeply relatable to anyone who has experienced historical upheaval, immigration, or the slow fading of stability.

“From frozen Helsinki to balmy Cambodia, from Soviet army barracks to Hebrew language classes, Matusevich’s short story collection traces the places where lives collide and care takes unexpected forms. Matusevich is a master portraitist and his Six Trains of No Return is a profound meditation on the strangeness of human connection.”—Sasha Vasilyuk, author of Your Presence Is Mandatory“Bracingly funny and quietly devastating, the characters in this indelible collection bring to life a whole teeming post-Soviet world, while reminding us what is most stubbornly human. The stories dance on the heads of history’s rustiest pins, alive to irony, affection, and moral risk: a woman weaponizes her suffering to the point that even death feels like theater; a caretaker whose devotion to an impractical genius becomes the deepest expression of friendship and self; a fearless brawler undone not by prison or punishment but, finally, by American popular culture; a phone call in which an entire imagined life collapses under the weight of factual correction, yet refuses to collapse completely. Masterful in its ability to provoke unanswerable questions about memory, loyalty, victimhood, and belonging, this is irresistible reading, written not to console but to illuminate the deeper truths we live with long after the official story is over.”—Sana Krasikov, author of The Patriots“The people in Maxim Matusevich’s Six Trains of No Return are poignant in both triumph and failure, whether in need of romance, spiritual comfort, sex, or booze, from the hesitant to those unashamed to reach out and take. These are characters who limp, jump, and soar off the page, from a diffident army recruit to a Walmart shopper, in locales ranging from Russia and Nigeria to Israel and the United States. As a Russian émigré, Matusevich shows us again and again how the personal depends on the political, even in the bedroom. It’s funny and sad and deeply affecting and may be the best book you’ll read all year.”—David Galef, author of Where I Went Wrong"Maxim Matusevich’s narrator is a keen and precise observer who rarely passes judgment on the people he encounters. His gentle, self-deprecating irony is both entertaining and quietly revealing, illuminating the passage of time that shapes and tests us all. His short stories explore disappointments, loves, and the pains we endure—experiences that ultimately make us more sensitive and more human. The stories reflect a deep knowledge of world literature, yet their emotional sensitivity is entirely his own. People and places, grand historical forces and intimate personal moments, East and West alike—all are seen through the eyes of a remarkably perceptive writer. I have not read such fine short stories in a very long time, and I wholeheartedly recommend Maxim Matusevich’s work to anyone."—Tomáš Zmeškal, author of Love Letter in Cuneiform