We all know families that are poor but ‘respectable’. Mine, in contrast, was extremely rich but not ‘respectable’ at all… This is the unforgettable memoir of a childhood spent in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, caught between East and West, tradition and modernity. Banine remembers her luxurious home, her beloved German governess and her imperious Muslim grandmother. She recalls how the Bolsheviks came, and how amid revolution and bloodshed she fell passionately in love, only to be forced into marriage with a man she loathed, until the chance of escape arrived. The story of Banine’s life is both a wry, romantic coming-of-age tale and a touching portrait of a vanished world.
