<div><p><I>Alphabet of Masks</I> is a collection of short stories and poems written on a mobile phone. It is an imaginative foray into the modern-day Russian experience. Dmitri Birman shows us how today's Russians straddle their Soviet past and their capitalist future in order to survive.</P> <p>The stories are wry, humorous, and sexually frank; the poems lyrical and elegiac about the narrator and his friends. The anti-Semitic reality of school bullies and army conscription, the adolescent yearning for classmates and teaching assistants, the Soviet dream of world travel and luxury consumption—all are part of the book, while the poetry resonates as variations on a theme.</P> <p><B>Dmitri Birman</B> became a new Russian businessman after Communism fell. A prize-winning poet, he is a member of the Russian PEN.</P></DIV>