Days in the Caucasus

Présentation de l'éditeur 'I started to leaf through the book and was soon engrossed... So vividly and wittily does the author reveal to us an utterly unfamiliar world' Teffi, author of Memories From Moscow to the Black Sea Banine's family were peasants who became millionaires overnight when oil gushed from their lands - and the course of her own life would be just as dramatic. This is her unforgettable memoir of an 'odd, rich, exotic' childhood, growing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, caught between east and west, tradition and modernity. She remembers her luxurious home, with endless feasts of sweets and fruit; her beloved, flaxen-haired German governess; her imperious, swearing, strict Muslim grandmother; her bickering, poker-playing, chain-smoking relatives. She recalls how the Bolsheviks came, and they lost everything. How, amid revolution and bloodshed, she fell passionately in love, only to be forced into marriage with a man she loathed - until the chance of escape arrived. By turns gossipy and romantic, wry and moving, Days in the Caucasus is a coming of age story and a portrait of a vanished world. It shows what it means to leave the past behind, yet how it haunts us. Revue de presse 'A delightful memoir of an eventful life set against the helter-skelter of the 20th century... Banine herself shines through as an intelligent and independent spirit, longing for her own self-determination.' -- Financial Times 'A romantic and gloriously comic account of a heady and turbulent youth spent on the shores of the Caspian... Banine's autobiography captures a rarefied world on the brink of extinction... What commends Days in the Caucasus, quite aside from its rakish narrative, is [her] exquisite prose and unremitting eye for comic absurdity even amid the profoundest personal tragedy' -- Bryan Karetnyk, Spectator '[A] witty and wonderful childhood memoir' -- Literary Review 'Every so often a voice emerges from the archive so vivid that it seems impossible that it should ever have been forgotten... Banine's sensual writing and remarkable ability to conjur the emotions of lost childhood recall Colette... dashingly translated' -- Evening Standard 'Banine tells her story of first loves, forced marriage, exile and Paris with wit and warmth. Never one to take anything too seriously, her company and her memoir is a delight.' -- Tatler, Best Books for Spring 'Recreates a vivid world... sardonic wit and colourful characterisation... reflective and heart-wrenching... powerfully conveyed in the translated prose' -- Riveting Reads 'A vivid coming-of-age story that also provides a valuable glimpse of a life lived in a half-Islamic, half-western world at a pivotal moment in history' -- The National 'An enchanting memoir' - Jane Shilling, Evening Standard 'This jewel of a memoir, written in 1945 but only now published in English, has all the makings of a Tolstoyan drama.' -- The New Internationalist 'The memoir of a turbulent childhood in Azerbaijan' -- Traveller Magazine 'I started to leaf through the book and was soon engrossed... So vividly and wittily does the author reveal to us an utterly unfamiliar world -- Teffi '[Banine] has a wickedly whetted tongue, and enough self-awareness to refuse sparing herself from her own reflections... Her writing is gorgeously translated by Anne Thomson-Ahmadova... it's only to be hoped that more of her works are translated as a result' -- The Arts Desk 'A stunning book... With all the freshness of childhood memories, this is anything but some sentimental story nostalgically written in flowery script on sepia paper' -- Critique des idées et des livres 'Beguiling humour… arresting… translation is excellent' -- The London Magazine 'Leads us on a delightful stroll, occasionally breaking into a somewhat mad dance, across a colourful, unfamiliar world' -- Paru 'An extraordinary sense of humour and a certain poetry too' -- La Presse 'An exquisite book' -- Paysa