In this essential collection of Andrei Platonov's plays, the noted
Platonov translator Robert Chandler edits and introduces The
Hurdy-Gurdy (translated by Susan Larsen), Fourteen Little Red Huts
(translated by Chandler), and Grandmother's Little Hut (translated by
Jesse Irwin). Written in 1930 and 1933, respectively, The Hurdy-Gurdy
and Fourteen Little Red Huts constitute an impassioned and penetrating
response to Stalin's assault on the Soviet peasantry. They reflect the
political urgency of Bertolt Brecht and anticipate the tragic farce of
Samuel Beckett but play out through dialogue and characterization that
is unmistakably Russian. This volume also includes Grandmother's Little
Hut, an unfinished play that represents Platonov's later, gentler work.