About Us

Translation is at best an echo.

-George Borrow

Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.

- Anthony Burgess

Where did the name ‘Beloved Enemies’ come from? 

The limits of literary translation adequacy have perhaps been discussed since the first translations appeared. The two quotes above are representative of two poles of opinion on the matter. While discussing them it occurred to us that the relationship between an original literary text and its translation can perhaps be described with a phrase originally used by a certain young boy we know referring to his younger brother as "мой любимый враг". In English this literally means “my beloved enemy”.  The phrase captured, for us, the idea of two things that are close and needed by each other, yet inevitably conflicting. In our minds, the idea of love and conflict between siblings generalized  to the relationship between translations, and so we chose it for the name of our store.

 How do we find our books? 

We love book stores and publishers and spend lots of time rummaging through old books at library sales, estates sales, street vendors in Moscow and old Russian cities and towns looking for books.

How do we deliver books to our customers? 

We ship our book pairs from Russia and the US simultaneously. Items shipped from Russia are typically taking from 4 to 6 weeks to deliver to locations outside of Russia but can be expedited for customers wishing faster delivery by request. 

Our dual language books are shipped free to all our customers. All of our electronic items cost nothing to send and arrive in your mailbox on the same day as your order.