Memories - From Moscow to the Black Sea

Winner of a Pushkin House special subsidiary prize for the best Russian book in translationA BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week The writer and satirist Teffi was a literary sensation in Russia until war and revolution forced her to leave her country for ever. Teffi, the pseudonymous writer Nadezhda Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya, was once favourite of both Nicholas II and Lenin, but later years found her fleeing from post-Revolutionary Russia. Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea is the journal of that exodus, charting Teffi’s heartbreaking loss of the Moscow she loved to the vast uncertainty of the future. At each step, friends and cities fall under the march of Bolshevik progress, forcing Taffi to endure what was, in effect, an infinite farewell. Fusing exuberant wit and bitter horror, this is an extraordinary portrayal of what it means to say goodbye, and confirms Teffi as one of the most humane, perceptive observers of her times, and an essential writer for ours.  ‘Teffi inimitably captures the chaos and terror of war… Memories might have been relentlessly bleak if it were not for its humour and Teffi’s indestructible positivity.’ – The Guardian 'Wonderfully idiosyncratic, coolly heartfelt and memorable' - William Boyd 'One of the great writers of early 20th Century Russia' - Simon Sebag Montefiore 'A remarkable memoir ...both potent and endearing' - Erica Wagner, New Statesman'[A] wonderfully idiosyncatic , coolly heartfelt and memorable book.' - The Sunday Times