The Long Valley is a collection of short stories first published by Steinbeck in 1938 and establishing his fame as one of the leading masters of American prose. Many stories from this wonderful book have already been translated and included in various anthologies, but the entire Long Valley is being published in Russian for the first time.The heroes of Steinbeck's stories are farmers and workers, bored housewives and peaceful inhabitants of small towns. At first glance, little is happening in their quiet life, so where does the shadow of some vague, inexplicable threat come from over a peaceful, comfortable existence? Why are ordinary, inconspicuous people at any moment able to turn into a crowd of bloody vigilantes, and the boredom of housewives can become the drama of an irretrievably ruined life? ..