I have to say that the selection of stories in this anthology of Tolstoy’s was undoubtedly brilliant. Martin Claret chose themes that are more than current in works written over a hundred years ago that seem to have been written much more recently.
But it would mean nothing for the themes to be current and interesting if Tolstoy’s brilliant writing were not fluid and incredibly welcoming. The author intertwines you in the stories in a way that makes it almost impossible 
to stop reading. Perhaps, I dare to say, Tolstoy is the most “pop” writer among the Russian authors whose works I have had the pleasure of knowing. Just for that, it would already be enough for all readers to venture into the philosophical, cruel, true, and sentimental words of this great writer.
The way Tolstoy describes the situation of women of that time in The Kreutzer Sonata is impressive, both for its boldness and for its lucidity and incredible cruelty. It is no surprise that Leo Tolstoy left his mark on the world through his incredibly timeless literature. I can say with all certainty that The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories was one of the best readings I have had the pleasure of experiencing in my life as a reader, and, with absolute certainty my dear readers, I say that The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, published by Martin Claret, is undeniably UNMISSABLE.
About the author: Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, better known in Portuguese as Leo, was a Russian writer, widely recognized as one of the greatest of all time. He is responsible for works such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Anna Karenina, War and Peace, born in 1828 on the Yásnaia Poliana estate, located near Tula, south of Moscow. He studied at the faculties of Oriental Languages and Law at Kazan University but did not graduate. He served in the army where he participated in the Crimean War, which he reported in Sevastopol Sketches. He was nominated sixteen times for the Nobel Prize in Literature and four times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Tolstoy was married to Sofia Tolstoy, with whom he had fourteen children. He passed away on November 20, 1910, at the age of 82.
Jeffa Koontz
Literary Critic
www.sagaliteraria.com.br