The Snows of Yesteryear: Portraits for an Autobiography

(Paperback)

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Description

'We grew up with the myth of a lost bygone world, golden and miraculous. We were already what later hundreds of thousands of Europeans were to become- refugees, exiles, leaves tossed by the storms of history.' The Snows of Yesteryear (1989) is Gregor von Rezzori's haunting evocation of his childhood in Czernowitz, in present-day Ukraine. Growing up after the First World War, Rezzori portrays a twilit world suspended between the dying ways of an imperial past and the terrors of the twentieth century. He recalls his volatile, boar-hunting father, his earthy nursemaid, his fragile, aristocratic mother, his adored governess and the tragic death of his beloved sister, in a luminous story of war, unrest, eccentricity, folk tales, dark forests, night flights, and what it is like to lose your home.

Reviews

One of those rare and lovely books . . . in the precision and quality of Rezzori's prose, in his passion for the perfect detail, and in his power to capture the reader's heart -- Alan Furst
[The series] sheds remarkable light on the literature, culture and politics of the region...anyone coming fresh to the field will be captivated by the richness, variety, humour and pathos of a classic literature that, through a shared historical experience, transcends national and linguistic boundaries. -- CJ Schler * Independent on Sunday *
This [series] is a wonderful idea ... They are absurdist parables, by turns hilarious, unsettling and enigmatic. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *
I urge you to go and read them. -- Adam Thirlwell * New Statesman *
This new series of Central European Classics is important well beyond simply providing 'good reads'. -- Stephen Vizinczey * Daily Telegraph *

Author Bio

Gregor von Rezzori (1914-1988) was born in the Austro-Hungarian province of Bukovina (now part of Ukraine). At different points in his life he was a citizen of the Habsburg Empire, Romania, the Soviet Union and Austria, with a substantial interval of statelessness. He lived the latter part of his life in Italy.