A Terrible Country

Name: A Terrible Country
Brand: Allen & Unwin
SKU: 9781910695760
Price: 36.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Keith Gessen

0.0 (0 reviews)

3.88

( 4,944 ratings, 725 reviews)

Summary

i>A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen is a poignant and often humorous novel about a young academic, Andrei, who returns to Russia to care for his ailing grandmother. As he navigates the complexities of Moscow life, Andrei engages with both his family’s history and the socio-political landscape, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the stark realities of contemporary Russia.
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Format: Paperback / softback

$36⁹⁹

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A Terrible Country

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy insightful stories about personal and cultural identity, especially within the context of modern Russia. It combines humour and depth as it explores themes of family responsibility and the clash between old and new worlds through the eyes of a protagonist trying to navigate his grandmother's world in Moscow. It's perfect for those interested in character-driven narratives that paint a vivid picture of contemporary life.

A Terrible Country

Capturing with a miniaturist's brush the unfolding demands of family, fortune, personal ambition, ideology, and desire, A Terrible Country is a compelling novel about ageing, radical politics, Russia at a crossroads, and the difficulty - or impossibility - of actually changing one's life.

Description

In the summer of 2008, Andrei Kaplan moves from New York to Moscow to look after his ageing grandmother, a woman who survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia's violent capitalist transformation. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can't always remember who he is.

Andrei learns to navigate Putin's Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly—but surprisingly sharp!—grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a café to send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia.

Capturing with a miniaturist's brush the unfolding demands of family, fortune, personal ambition, ideology, and desire, A Terrible Country is a compelling novel about ageing, radical politics, Russia at a crossroads, and the difficulty—or impossibility—of actually changing one's life.

A Terrible Country is even better than I hoped. By turns sad, funny, bewildering, revelatory, and then sad again, it ... unites the personal and political as only the best novels do.' - Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Keith Gessen's novel is praised for its humour, perceptive insights, and deep understanding of Russia. Reviewers commend its genuine male vulnerability, heart-warming narrative, and engaging exploration of ideas like power and responsibility while portraying the interplay of personal and political elements. The book provides a compelling depiction of contemporary Russia and the protagonist Andrei's personal struggles and realizations, making it both moving and thought-provoking.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781910695760

Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 July 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Fitzcarraldo Editions

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 127.0mm

Height: 195.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 352

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Keith Gessen Literary Fiction

About the Author

Keith Gessen is the author of A Terrible Country, All the Sad Young Literary Men and a founding editor of n+1. He edited and co-translated Kirill Medvedev's It's No Good, also published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, and translated Nobel Prize-winner Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl. He teaches journalism at Columbia and lives in New York.