It's the End of the World, My Love


 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Contents
 I. Against the Law
 
 It’s the End of the World, My Love
 At the Market
 Tech
 Memories of My Forgotten Beloved
 Under the Bridge
 Before the Gates
 Love Like Nobody
 Bedya
 Against the Law
 
 II. The Motor Bar
 
 Russian Beauty
 The Very Same Day
 Fairy in the Road
 Wasted Youth Party
 A New Year’s Without Mama
 
 III. Ivan the Boar’s Knee
 
 Lord of the Hurricane
 Treasures in Heaven
 Ivan the Boar’s Knee
 Anxiety
 Tenevil
 A Quirk
 The Sailor’s Wife
 The Rhino Wife
 Here Today
 We Love You, Dark Forest
 Cast to Earth
 The Sect
 The Amateur Porn Studio of Trishka Stryutsky
 Seven Edelweiss Flowers for My Betrothed
 A Scary Story
 Three Murderers
 The Gray Man
 Writers
 My First Psychotic Break
 Patient Y
 Sponsored Content
 
 IV. Memory of Heaven
 
 Memory of Heaven
 
 Notes
 Back Cover
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Contents
 I. Against the law
 It’s the End of the World, My Love
 Notes
 Start to Contents
 
 
 
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 It’s the End of the World, My Love
 •
 ALLA GORBUNOVA
 
 TRANSLATED BY ELINA ALTER
 
 DEEP VELLUM PUBLISHING DALLAS, TEXAS
 
 
 
 Deep Vellum Publishing
 3000 Commerce St., Dallas, Texas 75226
 deepvellum.org · @deepvellum
 Deep Vellum is a 501c3 nonprofit literary arts organization
 founded in 2013 with the mission to bring
 the world into conversation through literature.
 Translation copyright © 2022 by Elina Alter
 Алла Γорбунова
 “Конец света, моя любовь”
 © Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moscow, 2020
 First US Edition, 2022
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION CONTROL NUMBER: 2022942742
 ISBN (TPB) 978-1-64605-210-3
 ISBN (Ebook) 978-1-64605-236-3
 Cover design by Sarah Schulte
 Interior layout and typesetting by KGT
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 
 
 
 CONTENTS
 
 
 I.AGAINST THE LAW
 It’s the End of the World, My Love
 At the Market
 Tech
 Memories of My Forgotten Beloved
 Under the Bridge
 Before the Gates
 Love Like Nobody
 Bedya
 Against the Law
 II.THE MOTOR BAR
 Russian Beauty
 The Very Same Day
 Fairy in the Road
 Wasted Youth Party
 A New Year’s Without Mama
 III.IVAN THE BOAR’S KNEE
 Lord of the Hurricane
 Treasures in Heaven
 Ivan the Boar’s Knee
 Anxiety
 Tenevil
 A Quirk
 The Sailor’s Wife
 The Rhino Wife
 Here Today
 We Love You, Dark Forest
 Cast to Earth
 The Sect
 The Amateur Porn Studio of Trishka Stryutsky
 Seven Edelweiss Flowers for My Betrothed
 A Scary Story
 Three Murderers
 The Gray Man
 Writers
 My First Psychotic Break
 Patient Y
 Sponsored Content
 IV.MEMORY OF HEAVEN
 Memory of Heaven
 Notes
 
 
 
 
 
 I.
 AGAINST THE LAW
 
 
 
 
 
 IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD, MY LOVE
 
 When I was a child, what scared me the most was the end of the world. I was afraid of change in general. It seemed intuitive that changes would largely be for the worse—changes for the better were not likely. I was surrounded by nice things, and it was nice being among them. In the morning the sun filtered in through the bedroom windows, which faced east, and lit up the orange drapes. It was a nice sun and they were nice drapes. My nice grandfather pointed out the nice stars in the evening sky and, in the spring, the budding leaves—which were also, as you may have guessed, nice. Summers at the dacha, I would wake up in a joyfully expectant state of ease, and my friend Nadya would come over, an inevitable deck of cards in her pocket. Even then it was obvious that it would be best never to grow up. “Someday you’ll understand that happiness is anticipation,” my father said once.
 One of the adults I knew said that children could have a kind of complex consisting of a fear of change and the desire for everything to remain as it is. I certainly had that complex. And the end of the world was the manifestation of the most frightening change of all. There were also some terrible facts of a cosmic nature to consider. My grandfather