num_pages: 243
description: The story of a young woman's heady encounter with Russia - and a society in collapse. In 1991, Charlotte Hobson went to study for a year in the provincial town of Voronezh. She captures the lives of her young contemporaries as the Soviet Union breaks up around Viktor, and his brutal memories of military service; Lola who sleeps with her fellow students for a share of their dinner; Yakov, blowing a million roubles of the Salvation Army's money on a taxi to Minsk to see a girl. Here too is the author's story and Mitya's. Their love affair begins in a mood of wild optimism. Anything, it seems, is possible. Until in spring the snow thaws, and reveals the black earth beneath.
language: English
title: Black earth city: A year in the heart of Russia
titlecomplete: Black earth city: A year in the heart of Russia
genres: Russia, Biography Memoir, Memoir, Autobiography, Travel, Nonfiction, History, Biography
ratings_count: 216
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Somerset Maugham Award, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Duff Cooper Prize
publisher: Granta Books