Parisian Days: The Rediscovered Classic Memoir

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The Orient Express hurtles towards the promised land, and Banine is free for the first time in her life. She has fled her ruined homeland and unhappy forced marriage for a dazzling new future in Paris. Now she cuts her hair, wears short skirts, mingles with Russian emigres, Spanish artists, writers and bohemians in the 1920's beau monde - and even contemplates love.

But soon she finds that freedom brings its own complications. As her family's money runs out, she becomes a fashion model to survive. And when a glamorous figure from her past returns, life is thrown further into doubt. Banine has always been swept along by the forces of history. Can she keep up with them now


Told with vivacious wit and a lust for life, this companion to Days in the Caucasus is a bittersweet portrayal of youthful dreams, and the elusive search for happiness.

Reviews

'A scintillating book' - TLS

''Part memoir, part social history Parisian Days reads like a novel, its sumptuous and unsparing prose once again beautifully carried over into English by Anne Thompson-Ahmadova [and] for all its comic bravura, takes unflinching aim at Russia's colonial legacy amid the privations of exile'' - Bryan Karetnyk

'No less charming than its predecessor... to read Parisian Days is to luxuriate in Banine's powers of description and uncanny aptitude for the telling turn of phrase, in which she is, as previously, ably served by her translator Anne Thompson-Ahmadova' - Asian Review of Books

Praise for Days in the Caucasus
'Every so often a voice emerges from the archive so vivid that it seems impossible that it should ever have been forgotten' - Evening Standard

Author Bio

BANINE (1905-1992) was born Umm El-Banu Assadullayeva, into a wealthy family in Baku, then part of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution and the subsequent fall of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Banine was forced to flee her home country-first to Istanbul, and then to Paris. In Paris she formed a wide circle of literary acquaintances including Nicos Kazantzakis, Andre Malraux, Ivan Bunin and Teffi and eventually began writing herself. Parisian Days continues the story that began with Days in the Caucasus, which is also available from Pushkin Press.