Summary

In “The Cloud Dweller,” Boris thinks about Olga’s return from the Gulag that day in the spring of 1953. He remembers how he brushed off her concerns that they were being watched and followed. Her mother told him what happened the night she was arrested, and he felt helpless knowing he could do nothing to incentivize her release. In the meantime, he went home to his wife, Zinaida, at their Moscow apartment. That morning, he goes for a morning walk. Upon returning, he feels the familiar sting of lying to Zinaida when he plans to meet Olga. He attempts to write, but he is distracted by the memory of friends who were abducted and killed by the State during the Great Terror and the Purges. It continues to plague his mind decades later in moments of...