Farewell to Matyora

VALENTINE RASPUTIN (1937-2015) was a Russian writer. He was born and lived much of his life in the Irkutsk Oblast in Eastern Siberia. Rasputin's works depict rootless urban characters and the fight for survival of centuries-old traditional rural ways of life. Rasputin covered complex questions of ethics and spiritual revival. <p/>KATHLEEN PARTHÉ is Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Rochester and the author of Russian Village Prose. <p/>ANTONINA W. BOUIS has translated numerous novels and plays from the Russian.