Joyce called it “the greatest story the literature of the world knows”; it has been one of my own favorites from boyhood until the present day. Kudos, therefore, to Calypso Editions for bringing out a fresh translation, by Boris Dralyuk, of Tolstoy’s brief but devastating tale, “How Much Land Does a Man Need.” In his introduction, Brian Evenson calls it “a story of the impossibility of satisfying desire” — and it portrays compellingly a truth at the heart of all major religions: the frailty of man and the transitoriness of so much that he values.