Description

‘A scintillating book’ TLS

‘Her company is a delight’ Tatler

‘Part memoir, part social history… sumptuous and unsparing’ Financial Times

A brilliantly witty memoir telling the story of a young woman’s determined struggle for freedom

The Orient Express hurtles towards the promised land, freeing Banine from her past. Escaping her ruined homeland and forced marriage, she aspires to a dazzling future in Paris.

As a chic Parisienne she mingles with emigres, artists and writers-and even contemplates love. But freedom brings challenges. Swept along by the forces of history, can Banine keep up?

Filled with vivacious wit and a lust for life, this companion to Days in the Caucasus is a paean to bittersweet dreams and the quest for happiness.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe

Translated by Anne Thompson-Ahmadova

Banine (1905-1992) was born Umm El-Banu Assadullayeva, 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, Andre Malraux, Ivan Bunin and Teffi and eventually began writing herself. Parisian Days continues the story that began with Days in the Caucasus, which is also available from Pushkin Press.

Publisher Review

‘A scintillating book’ – TLS

”Part memoir, part social history Parisian Days reads like a novel, its sumptuous and unsparing prose once again beautifully carried over into English by Anne Thompson-Ahmadova [and] for all its comic bravura, takes unflinching aim at Russia’s colonial legacy amid the privations of exile” – Bryan Karetnyk

‘No less charming than its predecessor… to read Parisian Days is to luxuriate in Banine’s powers of description and uncanny aptitude for the telling turn of phrase, in which she is, as previously, ably served by her translator Anne Thompson-Ahmadova’ – Asian Review of Books

Praise for Days in the Caucasus
‘Every so often a voice emerges from the archive so vivid that it seems impossible that it should ever have been forgotten’ – Evening Standard