{"product_id":"9781934824528","title":"The Golden Calf","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"A remarkably funny book written by a remarkable pair of collaborators.\"—\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOstap Bender, the \"grand strategist,\" is a con man on the make in the Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy (NEP) period. He's obsessed with getting one last big score—a few hundred thousand will do—and heading for Rio de Janeiro, where there are \"a million and a half people, all of them wearing white pants, without exception.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Bender hears the story of Alexandr Koreiko, an \"undercover millionaire\"—no Soviet citizen was allowed to openly hoard so much capital—the chase is on. Koreiko has made his millions by taking advantage of the wide-spread corruption and utter chaos of the NEP, all while serving quietly as an accountant at a government office and living on 46 rubles a month. He's just waiting for the Soviet regime to collapse so he can make use of his stash, which he keeps hidden away in a suitcase.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIlya Ilf\u003c\/b\u003e (1897–1937) and \u003cb\u003eEvgeny Petrov\u003c\/b\u003e (1903–1942) were the pseudonyms of Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny Petrovich Katayev, a pair of Soviet writers who met in Moscow in the 1920s while working on the staff of a newspaper that was distributed to railway workers. The foremost comic novelists of the early Soviet Union (invariably referred to as Ilf\u0026amp;Petrov), the pair collaborated together for a dozen years, writing two of the most revered and loved Russian novels, \u003ci\u003eThe Twelve Chairs\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Calf\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as various humorous pieces for Pravda and other magazines. Their collaboration came to an end following the death of Ilya Ilf in 1937—he had contracted tuberculosis while the pair was traveling the United States researching the book that eventually became \u003ci\u003eLittle Golden America\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKonstantin Gurevich\u003c\/b\u003e is a graduate of Moscow State University and the University of Texas at Austin. He translates with his wife, Helen Anderson. Both are librarians at the University of Rochester.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHelen Anderson\u003c\/b\u003e studied Russian language and literature at McGill University in Montréal. She translates with her husband, Konstantin Gurevich.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Letter","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47137258438896,"sku":"9781934824528","price":9.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781934824528_p0.jpg?v=1769896205","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781934824528","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}