{"product_id":"days-in-the-caucasus-9781805332206","title":"Days in the Caucasus","description":"\u003cb\u003eA scintillatingly witty memoir of a young woman's struggle for freedom, growing up in Azerbaijan on the eve of the Russian Revolution. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Characters so vividly drawn that their raucous voices seem to echo long after they have vanished from sight.\" -- \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGrowing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early 20th century, Banine had an 'odd, rich, exotic' childhood that left her continually caught between East and West, tradition and modernity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eShe 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy turns gossipy and romantic, wry and moving, \u003ci\u003eDays in the Caucasus\u003c\/i\u003e is a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a vanished world, and of how the past haunts us. Banine's gripping memoir provides fascinating insight into the history of the little-known and understood Caucasus region. It tells the poignant story of how, having grown up in Azerbaijan, Banine is forced to flee her home-country following the Russian Revolution, carrying with her the memories of a life that would never be the same again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBanine\u003c\/b\u003e 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. \u003ci\u003eDays in the Caucasus\u003c\/i\u003e is Banine's most famous work. It was published in 1945 to critical acclaim but has never been translated into English, until now. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnne Thompson-Ahmadova\u003c\/b\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Pushkin Press Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52141473562898,"sku":"9781805332206","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3c45e864-4b9b-41d3-8b0e-a75a12f9b0a5.jpg?v=1774451268","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/days-in-the-caucasus-9781805332206","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}