Description
On a midsummer day in 1937, Boris Bibikov kissed his two daughters goodbye and disappeared. One of those girls, Lyudmila, was to fall in love with a tall young foreigner in Moscow at the height of the Cold War and embark on a dangerous and passionate affair. Decades later, a reporter in nineties Moscow, her son Owen Matthews pieces together his grandfather's passage through the harrowing world of Stalin's purges, and tells the story of his parents' Cold War love affair through their heartbreaking letters and memories. Stalin's Children is a raw, vivid memoir about a young man's struggle to understand his parents' lives and the history of the strange country in which they lived.
The facts of Russia and the Cold War are made personal and relevant in this deeply personal account - appealing to a broad market of anyone interested in life behind the Iron Curtain. Stalin's Children has been longlisted for the 2009 Orwell Prize for political writing. For fans of Timothy Garton-Ash's The File: A Personal History, and the 2007 film The Lives of Others Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2008
About the Author
Owen Matthews was born in London and spent part of his childhood in America. He studied Modern History at Oxford University before beginning his career as a journalist in Bosnia. In 1995 he accepted a job at The Moscow Times, a daily English-language newspaper. He also freelanced for a number of publications including The Times, the Spectator and the Independent. In 1997, he became a correspondent at Newsweek magazine in Moscow where he covered the second Chechen war, as well as politics and society. Owen was also one of the first journalists to witness the start of the US bombing in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, 2001, and went on to cover the invasion of Iraq, 2003. Owen is currently Newsweek magazine's bureau chief in Moscow, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Reviews
'A Russian Wild Swans ... Some of the stories will stay with me forever' Sunday Times 'Heartbreaking, romantic and utterly compelling ... An astonishing personal history of love, death and betrayal' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Gripping ... This fascinating book is not a footnote to Soviet history: it is Soviet history, one of the millions of private tales of evil and astonishing endurance that make up the awful whole' Observer 'Epic ... extraordinary ... Matthews ... seems to contain an essence of a Russia that preceded the turmoils and savage inflictions that he so richly describes in his book' Simon Callow, Guardian
Awards
Short-listed for Orwell Prize 2009 and Guardian First Book Award 2008.
Book Information
ISBN 9780747596608
Author Owen Matthews
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm
The facts of Russia and the Cold War are made personal and relevant in this deeply personal account - appealing to a broad market of anyone interested in life behind the Iron Curtain. Stalin's Children has been longlisted for the 2009 Orwell Prize for political writing. For fans of Timothy Garton-Ash's The File: A Personal History, and the 2007 film The Lives of Others Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2008
About the Author
Owen Matthews was born in London and spent part of his childhood in America. He studied Modern History at Oxford University before beginning his career as a journalist in Bosnia. In 1995 he accepted a job at The Moscow Times, a daily English-language newspaper. He also freelanced for a number of publications including The Times, the Spectator and the Independent. In 1997, he became a correspondent at Newsweek magazine in Moscow where he covered the second Chechen war, as well as politics and society. Owen was also one of the first journalists to witness the start of the US bombing in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan, 2001, and went on to cover the invasion of Iraq, 2003. Owen is currently Newsweek magazine's bureau chief in Moscow, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Reviews
'A Russian Wild Swans ... Some of the stories will stay with me forever' Sunday Times 'Heartbreaking, romantic and utterly compelling ... An astonishing personal history of love, death and betrayal' Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Gripping ... This fascinating book is not a footnote to Soviet history: it is Soviet history, one of the millions of private tales of evil and astonishing endurance that make up the awful whole' Observer 'Epic ... extraordinary ... Matthews ... seems to contain an essence of a Russia that preceded the turmoils and savage inflictions that he so richly describes in his book' Simon Callow, Guardian
Awards
Short-listed for Orwell Prize 2009 and Guardian First Book Award 2008.
Book Information
ISBN 9780747596608
Author Owen Matthews
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm
