One of the prominent writers of the post-World War II period in Soviet literature, Vera Panova gained fame and the esteem of Soviet readers for her short novel Sputniki (1946; translated as The Train, 1948). Sputniki offers a close and compassionate look at the people who manned a wartime hospital train during World War II and who, in Panova's view, symbolized the hope of the country for survival and victory. The majority of her subsequent stories, novels, and plays enjoyed a similar positive reception. Panova's enduring popularity, both with Soviet readers and the literary establishment, rests on her ability to portray the ordinary lives of her characters with great sympathy and some nuance. Even though the contours of Panova's works remain firmly rooted in the aesthetics of socialist realism, the subtlety with which her protagonists were drawn, as well as her fidelity to the issues of primary importance to the...