Good Citizens Need Not Fear

The stories are grouped in two parts.

• Part One. Before the Fall
• "Novostroïka"{{efn|"Novostroïka" ({{lang|ru|новостройка}}) is a Russian word for a new construction site or a new building.}}
• :The story is a fictionalization of Maria's parents experience: due to a clerical error their building did not enter the city's registry, and for the municipal services the building did not exist.Maria Reva, [https://www.virago.co.uk/virago-news/2020/05/07/writing-from-curiosity-not-rage-by-maria-reva/ Writing from Curiosity, Not Rage] This is what exactly happens in the story to Daniil Petrovich Blinov living at 1933 Invansk St. The "non-existing" building is central to the collection, with all events happening in or in the vicinity of it.
• "Little Rabbit"
• :Maria Reva says that when she was writing the story "Miss USSR" and elaborating on the early life of its protagonist, a girl nicknamed Zaya,{{efn|

"Zaya" is a variant of the feminine loving nickname "Zayka" derived from the word zayats, a hare, i.e., emotionally in would be equivalent to "Bunny". However "rabbit" would be krolik in Russian, and there is no loving pet name derived from it.

}} she realized that Zaya's life in an orphanage is a story by itself. She writes that this was an example how the linkage between the stories gradually formed.Isaac Yuen, [https://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/between-humor-and-darkness-an-interview-with-maria-reva/ Between Humor and Darkness: An Interview with Maria Reva] The girl got the nickname not because she was loved, but because she had the "hare's lip", Russian for "cleft lip". Reva wrote that initially it was difficult for her to strike a proper balance of dark humor because of the atrocity of the situation in the orphanage where children were written off to die. However she says she had found a proper tone: the story started from the perspective of the orphanage management trying to deliver the logic of why the orphans must be handled this way.

• "Letter of Apology"
• : Somebody ratted on a poet Konstantyn that he told a political joke. Mikhail Ivanovich from KGB tries to extort a letter of apology from Konstantyn saying that in the past he would have gotten 10 years of Gulag, but in modern times he can get away much easier, because... "prisons could no longer accommodate every citizen who uttered a joke."
• "Bone Music"
• :The story is based on a real samizdat practice of the Soviet Union: before the advent of tape recorders the banned Western music was clandestinely recorded "on ribs" or "on bones", i.e., on old X-ray films.[https://www.npr.org/2016/01/09/462289635/bones-and-grooves-weird-secret-history-of-soviet-x-ray-music Bones And Grooves: The Weird Secret History Of Soviet X-Ray Music], NPR / KQED-FM, January 9, 2016
• "Miss USSR"
• :The candidate for the pageant, a Ukrainian beauty Orynko was disliked by the bosses as "too political" ad removed. Konstantyn pulls Zaya out of the orphanage as a substitute, with bizarre consequences.
• Part Two. After the Fall

:In this part, the people of 1933 Invansk St. scramble to make for living in the emerged capitalist economy.

:*"Lucky Toss"

::Konstantyn charges pilgrims for visits to the mummy of a saint he keeps in an apartment next to his own.

:*"Roach Brooch"

::"Lucky Toss" and "Roach Brooch" have a mystical, Kafkaesque feeling, which somewhat precipitates into "The Ermine Coat" story.

::"Roach Brooch" connects to that of the "Bone Music": an old man with ungrateful offspring refuses to remove cancer, because he is entitled to monthly X-rays, which he turns into the "bone music".Allan Hepburn, [https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2020/06/storeys-of-stories/ Storeys of Stories Finding the sublime in the ridiculous]

:*"The Ermine Coat"

::At some point in the life Maria's parents indeed had to make living by sewing together ermine pelts for coats.

:*"Homecoming"

::Zaya returns to the orphanage to work for a business who recreates the experiences of Gulag for wealthy "dark tourists".

Good Citizens Need Not Fear was considered for several awards:

• 2020: A shortlisted finalist for the 2020 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.[https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2020/10/06/thomas-king-gil-adamson-among-finalists-for-50k-writers-trust-fiction-prize.html "Thomas King, Gil Adamson among finalists for $50K Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize"]. Toronto Star, October 6, 2020.
• 2020: Shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
• 2020: Globe and Mail: "The Globe 100" book list[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-the-globe-100-our-favourite-books-of-2020/ The Globe 100: Our favourite books of 2020]
• 2021: Shortlisted for Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize
• 2022: Recipient of the Kobzar Literary Award

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Category:2020 short story collections

Category:Canadian short story collections

Category:Works set in the Soviet Union