About the Author

Nina Berberova (1901-1993) was a Russian-born writer, academic, editor and translator. Raised in St Petersburg, she left Russia in 1922 and lived in Germany, Czechoslovakia and Italy before settling in Paris. There she published widely in the emigre press and wrote the stories and novels for which she is now known. Berberova emigrated to the United States in 1950 and eventually took up academic posts at Yale and later Princeton. In France she was honoured as a chevalier of l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Reviews

'[A] unique, harmonious, and brilliant book. Her language is uncommonly strong and pure; her images are magnificent for their solid and precise power... this is literature of the highest quality, the work of a genuine writer' - Vladimir Nabokov

'Haunting... as graceful and subtle as Chekhov' - Anne Tyler, New Republic