Funeral Party

''Dazzling . . . [An] engrossing study of a vivacious personality slipping away'' THE TIMES

''Rich in detail, elusive in meaning, light in touch'' MOSCOW TIMES

In a small apartment in New York, in the sweltering mid-summer heat, a group of Russian émigrés gather around the sickbed of an artist named Alik.

Nina, his wife, is desperate for Alik to be baptised; Irina, his ex-lover, a circus acrobat turn...