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Anthony Marra uses the genre of a short story cycle to create a collection expressing repressed emotions under various forms of censorship spanning over seventy years, from the era of the USSR to contemporary Russia and Chechnya. The literary techniques he uses to achieve this end are the object of this study, ranging from his use of paratext, his irony, his network of images or screen memories, among other means to express taboo emotions. These processes all enhance the combinatory activity of readers, who participate in orchestrating the repressed humanity of characters surviving, or not, in the midst of the general absurdity of their times.