Opulent, playful, and sensual, Polina Barskova"s poems have earned her a reputation as the finest Russian poet under forty. While steeped in Russian and classical culture, Barskova"s work remains unmistakably contemporary, at once classic and edgy--always fresh, new and even startling. A major English-language event, The Zoo in Winter collects poems from seven earlier books as well as from her more recent work. It is a remarkable menagerie of poems, of a strange and intoxicating beauty.