Moscow Noir
By (Author) Natalia Smirnova
Akashic Books,U.S.
Akashic Books,U.S.
26th August 2010
United States
General
Fiction
891.730872083584731
Paperback
294
Width 133mm, Height 210mm
299g
The more one watches Moscow, the more it looks like a huge chameleon that keeps changing its face; and it isn't always pretty. Despite its stunning outward lustre, Moscow is above all a city of broken dreams and unrealised utopias, and all manner of scum oozes through the gap between dream and reality. Moscow Noir is an attempt to turn the tourist Moscow of gingerbread and woodcuts, of glitz and big money, inside out; an attempt to show its fetid womb and make sense of the desolation that reigns there.
Natalia Smirnova was born in 1978 in Moscow. After studying law and working as a lawyer for a while, she moved to St. Petersburg to work for a publisher as a foreign rights manager. In 2006 together with Julia Goumen Natalia founded Goumen&Smirnova Literary Agency representing Russian authors worldwide. Julia Goumen was born in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1977. With a PhD in English, she has been working in publishing since 2001. After 3 years as a foreign rights manager she started an independent business as a literary agent. Since 2006 Julia Goumen runs Goumen&Smirnova Literary Agency together with Natalia Smirnova.