Los días del Cáucaso

Banine remembers the waters of the Caspian Sea, her luxurious mansion in Baku, the splendid parties, the fruits, the sweets; her German governess with her flowing blonde hair, her imperious and strict Muslim grandmother, her wealthy but disreputable relatives who, arguing and smoking incessantly, gambled away the immense fortune oil had amassed. Banine remembers how the Bolsheviks then arrived, and suddenly they lost everything; how in the whirlwind of revolution and bloodshed she fell passionately in love with a man, only to be forced to marry another whom she detested; until the opportunity to escape arose, first to Istanbul, then to Paris. In this elegant, ironic, and moving memoir—one of the most original and thrilling autobiographical books of the 20th century—Banine recalls his fascinating and turbulent youth in the disputed territory of Azerbaijan, perpetually balanced between East and West, between the world of yesterday and the uncertain days to come.