Days in the Caucasus

Days in the Caucasus by Banine. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781782274872.

A scintillatingly witty memoir telling the story of a young womans determined struggle for freedom This is the unforgettable 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. 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.