DAYS IN THE CAUCASUS

A rediscovered classic memoir the scintillatingly witty account of one extraordinary woman s life during a turbulent century A voice so vivid it seems impossible that it should ever have been forgotten Evening Standard An effervescent and irreverent feat of recollection and imagination Wall Street Journal We all know families that are poor but respectable Mine in contrast was extremely rich but not respectable at all This is the unforgettable memoir of a childhood spent in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century caught between East and West tradition and modernity Banine remembers her luxurious home her beloved German governess and her imperious Muslim grandmother She recalls how the Bolsheviks came and 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 The story of Banine s life is both a wry romantic coming of age tale and a touching portrait of a vanished world It is continued in her companion memoir Parisian Days PRAISE FOR DAYS IN THE CAUCASUS 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 Th