Mirra Ginsburg

A poor and foolish king marries off his three daughters to the Sun, the Moon, and the Raven and then tries to copy their special talents.

When he tries to imitate a rooster, a newly-hatched chick falls in a puddle.

Wanting a son, an old man and woman make a clay boy who comes to life and begins eating everything in sight until he meets a clever goat.

A fisherman's son saves the lives of four animals who in turn help him accomplish the impossible tasks set him by the woman he wants to marry.

Everything everywhere is asleep except for the wind and one wakeful child.

After the sun fails to shine for the third day, three chicks go in search of it with the help of their animal friends.

The sun, the breeze, the leaves, the bird, the squirrel, and the child all grow tired after a long day and go to sleep.

A collection of brief tales, riddles, and fables from various parts of Russia.

I first read Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita on a balcony of the Hotel Metropole in Saigon on three summer evenings in 1971. The tropical air was heavy and full of the smells of cordite and motorcycle exhaust and rotting fish and wood-fire stoves, and the horizon flared ambiguously, perhaps from heat lightning, perhaps from bombs. Later each night, as was my custom, I would wander out into the steamy back alleys of the city, where no one...

Fourteen traditional folktales from the different peoples of Russia featuring both clever and silly fools.