Lunchtime read: Russian Short Stories

Sinbad the Sailor - Yury Buida
A short but powerful story about an old poor woman who is dying and gives her doctor one last instruction to go into her house and burn the thousands of copies she has made of one poem by Pushkin. She has written the poem everyday of her life and noted down the date and any major events at the bottom. The doctor obviously feels he is almost burning her soul when he burns the papers but keeps the last one, which she had given him, which is also undated. It becomes a reflection on time and mortality.