Finnish author Rosa Liksom reads from and discusses her recently translated novel Compartment No. 6 (Graywolf Press, August 2016), a wickedly mischievous, darkly imaginative, and completely unforgettable ride.

In the waning years of the Soviet Union, a sad young Finnish woman boards a train in Moscow bound for Mongolia, she’s trying to put as much space as possible between her and a broken relationship. Wanting to be alone, she chooses an empty compartment—No. 6.—but her solitude is soon shattered by the arrival of a fellow passenger: Vadim Nikolayevich Ivanov, a grizzled, opinionated, foul-mouthed former soldier. Vadim fills the compartment with his long and colorful stories, recounting in lurid detail his sexual conquests and violent fights.