An epic and engrossing novel set at the beginning of the twentieth century, THE ODESSANS is the story of three families from Odessa in the Ukraine: the Russian Petrovs, the Jewish Geibers, and the Teslenkos, who are of Ukrainian and Polish descent. Throughout years of war, famine, political struggle and incredible hardship, their deep friendships sustain each of the families. Their lives are rent by tragedy; some friends are hounded by anti-Semites, while others join opposite sides in the Civil War or are forced to flee to Odessa. But through it all, their characteristic good humour and faith in each other enable their close circle to survive.

About the Author
Born in Ukraine in 1954, Irina Ratushinskaya was a leading Russian poet and dissident, who was sentenced in 1983 to seven years' hard labour and five years' internal exile for her poetry, deemed to be 'anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda'. She was unaware that her poems had been smuggled out and published in Britain by Bloodaxe in 1986, and that an international campaign had been mounted on her behalf. Following a series of hunger strikes, she was released in October that year. Initially she and her husband moved to the US, then spent ten years in Britain before returning to Russia in 1998 with their twin sons. In addition to her poetry, she wrote the memoirs Grey is the Colour of Hope (Hodder & Stoughton, 1989) and In the Beginning (Hodder &Stoughton, 1991), as well as the novels The Odessans (1996) and Fictions and Lies (1999). She died of cancer in 2017.


Book Information
ISBN 9781473637269
Author Irina Ratushinskaya
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint Sceptre
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Weight(grams) 291g
Dimensions(mm) 201mm * 126mm * 26mm