The Compromise (Kompromiss)

Sergei Dovlatov is one of the most popular and widely read Russian writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His novellas, short stories, and notebooks have been translated into many languages, adapted for film, and are studied in schools and universities. 'The Reserve,' 'The Zone,' 'The Foreigner,' 'Ours,' 'The Suitcase'—these and other surprisingly funny and piercingly sad Dovlatov works have long since become classics. 'Frosted my toes and ears,' 'I drank the night before—it felt like I'd swallowed a rabbit fur hat with earflaps,' 'Alcoholism is curable, but drunkenness is not'—Dovlatov's jokes are instantly memorable, and you reread his books dozens of times. They never get boring.