Two Crocodiles (New Directions Pearls) Reprint edition

Bound together in mystical crocodile skin, two unforgettably singular novellas

Two Crocodiles highlights two literary masters from opposite ends of the world ? Russia?s Fyodor Dostoevsky and Uruguay?s Felisberto Hernández. Dostoevsky?s crocodile, cruelly displayed in a traveling sideshow, gobbles whole a pretentious high-ranking civil servant. But the functionary survives unscathed and seizes his new unique platform to expound to the fascinated public. Dostoevsky?s Crocodile is a matchless, hilarious satire.

Hernández?s Crocodile, on the other hand, while also terribly funny, is a heartbreaker. A pianist struggling to make ends meet as a salesman finds success when he begins to weep before clients and audience alike, but then he can?t stop the crocodile tears.