Black Earth City: A Year in the Heart of Russia
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.26 (570 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1862074984 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-10-14 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"A year in a provincial Russian city. And what" according to TP. A year in a provincial Russian city. And what a year-1991, the Soviet Union is falling apart. Students of many nationalities are living together in a feverish climate of excitement and despair fuelled by vodka, manic energy and adventure. Charlotte Hobson takes deep into this world in a marvellous book that deserves to be back in print alongside Norman Lewis's classic Naples A year in a provincial Russian city. And what TP A year in a provincial Russian city. And what a year-1991, the Soviet Union is falling apart. Students of many nationalities are living together in a feverish climate of excitement and despair fuelled by vodka, manic energy and adventure. Charlotte Hobson takes deep into this world in a marvellous book that deserves to be back in print alongside Norman Lewis's classic Naples 44. A year in a provincial Russian city. And what TP A year in a provincial Russian city. And what a year-1991, the Soviet Union is falling apart. Students of many nationalities are living together in a feverish climate of excitement and despair fuelled by vodka, manic energy and adventure. Charlotte Hobson takes deep into this world in a marvellous book that deserves to be back in print alongside Norman Lewis's classic Naples 44.
Charlotte Hobson spent her gap year as a student in Voronezh, in deepest provincial Russia. Her arrival coincided with the collapse of this society, as initial optimism about the fall of communism gave way to disillusionment and uncertainy. They too started out in a mood of wild optimism, and felt that anything was possible. These feelings are mirrored in the doomed love affair she has with the vodka-swilling Mitya. Until in the spring the snow thawed, and revealed the black earth beneath.
She now lives in Cornwall. Charlotte Hobson read Russian at Edinburgh University and went on to spend much of the 1990s living, working and travelling in Russia.
'Hobson's poignant tales of the friendships she developedare told with something of the muted emotion that suffuses Chekhov's short stories' The Times 'Russia is a place that makes huge demands on the heart to be understood, and, out of what she did and did not like, Charlotte Hobson has fashioned a valuable memoir of an age which will surely never return' Literary Review 'Profoundly moving Hobson's prose is unselfconsciously precise and poetic, her images of Voronezh and its characters poignant and unforgettable' Sunday Times