Days in the Caucasus - by Banine (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b><b>A scintillatingly witty memoir telling the story of a young woman's determined struggle for freedom</b></b> <p/><i>We all know families that are poor but 'respectable'. Mine, in contrast, was extremely rich but not 'respectable' at all...</i> <p/> This is the extraordinary memoir of an 'odd, rich, exotic' childhood - of growing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, caught between East and West, tradition and modernity. <p/> Banine 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. <p/> By turns gossipy and romantic, wry and moving, <i>Days in the Caucasus</i> is a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a vanished world, and of how the past haunts us.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>An effervescent and irreverent feat of recollection and imagination--epic in sweep yet intimate in tone--that introduces the reader to an exotic, antique world and to characters so vividly drawn that their raucous voices seem to echo long after they have vanished from sight... A radiant jewel of a book <b><i>-- The Wall Street Journal</i></b> <p/>"Banine's consummate prose is marked by undertones of erudite wittiness. Educated and pragmatic, but also hopeful, she expresses wanting nothing more than to be free to pursue self-realization. D<i>ays in the Caucasus </i>was published in 1945; this first English translation of the memoir is an absolute joy--full of adventure, travel, and youthful dreams." <b><i>-- Foreword Reviews</i></b> <p/>"Banine offers us an invaluable, irresistibly readable portrait of a way of life eclipsed by the cataclysms of the 20th century." <b><i>-- The Calvert Journal</i></b> <p/>A delightful memoir of an eventful life set against the helter-skelter of the 20th century. <b><i>-- Financial Times</i></b> <p/>Every so often a voice emerges from the archive so vivid that it seems impossible that it should ever have been forgotten. <b><i>-- Evening Standard </i></b> <p/>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. <b>-- Teffi</b> <p/>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. <b>-- Bryan Karetnyk, <i>Spectator <p/></i></b>"This jewel of a memoir, written in 1945 but only now published in English, has all the makings of a Tolstoyan drama" <b>-- <i><i><b>New Internationalist</b></i> <p/></i></b>"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<i>" <b>-- </b></i><b><i><i><b>Tatler</b></i> <p/></i></b>"Filtering her childhood ambitions through the lens of maturity, Banine recreates a world that is both believable and thoroughly engrossing"<i> <i><b>-- </b></i></i><b><i><i><b>Times Literary Supplement</b></i> <p/></i></b>"A devilish story, like a finely spiced dish, bringing verve, joy and charm along with its delicious style" <i><i><b>-- </b></i></i><b><i><i><b>Action</b></i> <p/></i></b>"An intense story, often amusing, which plunges the reader into the most unfamiliar territory imaginable"<i> <i><i><b>--</b></i></i></i><b><i><i><b>Verités</b></i> <p/></i></b>A book to give those gloomy souls who find daily existence banal"<i><i><i><b>--</b></i></i></i><b><i><b><i>Lettres françaises</i></b></i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br>Banine was born Umm El-Banu Assadullayeva in 1905, into a wealthy family in Baku, then part of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution and the subsequent fall of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Banine was forced to flee her home-country - first to Istanbul, and then to Paris. In Paris she formed a wide circle of literary acquaintances including Nicos Kazantzakis, André Malraux, Ivan Bunin and Teffi and eventually began writing herself. <i>Days in the Caucasus</i> is Banine's most famous work. It was published in 1945 to critical acclaim but has never been translated into English, until now.<br/> <br/>Anne-Thompson Ahmadova is a writer and translator from Azerbaijani, French and Russian. She lived in Baku for twenty years, moving there in 1997 initially to set up a Caucasus bureau for the BBC Monitoring Service.
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