In this memoir of growing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, Banine recalls her luxurious home, with feasts of sweets and fruit; her imperious Muslim grandmother; her bickering, poker-playing, chain-smoking relatives.
She recounts how the Bolsheviks came, and how, amid revolution and bloodshed, she fell in love, only to be forced into marriage with a man she loathed – until the chance of escape arrived. Translated by Anne Thompson-Ahmadova
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