This book was the winner of the 1993 Russian Booker Prize and its author won the 1998 Pushkin Prize for his collected works. In Baize-Covered, the unnamed narrator (none of the characters are named) is a man of a certain age who has been called, not for the first time, before a tribunal composed of a representative sampling of his fellow citizens: the “proletarian firebrand”, the “wise old man”, the “pretty woman”, “the one who asks the questions”, etc. He will either need to account for some transgression or make an appeal for some concession. The night before his appearance is a sleepless one, spent brooding over the coming ordeal, recollecting a lifetime of similar inquisitions and musing on the haunted nature of the Russian soul. Is it condescending of me to suggest that this book, written by a man who had to endure the Brezhnev era and the collapse of the Soviet Union, can probably best be appreciated as a specimen of literary therapy, both for the author and the society he represents? Certainly, the quality of the writing is not well served by the translator, A.L. Tait, who consistently smoothes out the original language. As an example, consider the title, in Russian Стол, покрытый сукном и с графином в середине, which, in my opinion, would be more exactly and appropriately rendered as something like, A Table, Covered in a Greenish Felt and With a Carafe. ( )