We specifically avoided poetry to minimise the loss of sense. Obviously, no work of literature in translation will convey the full sense of meaning that the original will. This applies to every book translated, from the Iliad and Odyssey and the Bible to Satre, Kafka, Kundera and Marquez.

I think that Pushkin, Turgenev, Pasternak and Bunin might lose marginally a bit more, but the beauty of the prose should come through in any skillful translation. There isn't a lot of wordplay in these books - nothing like Chekhov's Ya uvidela sosnu sosna - "I saw a pine tree in a dream" where "so sna" (in a dream) is the same as the nominative form of "pine tree" (sosna) which in that sentence is in the accusative (sosnu). I forget which play of his that was in.