An Unknown Friend

Ivan Bunin received the 1933 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the strict artistry with which he has carried on the classical Russian traditions in prose writing.” Aristocrat to the core, Bunin somehow remained connected to the land and people and keenly felt their pulse of life. His acute observations resulted in the accurate and unforgettable characters who populated his writing.

His love for punctuation and punctilious choice of words is legendary.

Reading Bunin's stories is one of the best ways to understand the mysterious Russian soul and begin to understand one of Russia’s greatest periods of literature.

"An Unknown Friend" is 14 short letters addressed to an unnamed to the writer. It's the end of the 19Th century. Lonely and desperate Masha writes series of love letters to a man who does not respond. Her cold and ignorant husband leads his own life not seeming to notice nor care about his wife's troubles. Masha chooses to live in her own world, in their huge renaissance house trying to cope with her rather bleak future and quite a disturbing past.