- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Granta Books; New edition edition (17 May 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1862074984
- ISBN-13: 978-1862074989
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 264,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
While Charlotte Hobson's beautiful and moving debut book, Black Earth City, is likely to end up on the travel shelves of bookshops, it is much more than a straightforward narrative. Telling of a year spent in provincial Russia at the end of the Soviet era, Hobson's narrative also triumphantly comes to embrace the passions of friendship and love.
Hobson begins her book in 1991, when she moves to Voronezh, south of Moscow. Beginning with a chaotic hostel, and then moving through the break-up of Soviet life, Black Earth City introduces us to many vivid characters, which provide a compelling portrait of Russia and the Russians. But the book's centrepiece is Hobson's love affair with Mitya, a young man whose dissolution and disillusion mirror the tragedy simultaneously being undergone by the Soviet Union.
The detail of the relationship with Mitya is rich and honest, and indeed the whole book is suffused with such elegant prose that reading it is a real pleasure. As we are drawn into Hobson's circle of friends, and their affairs and passions, it is impossible not to be caught up with the thrill of being young. At the same time, her portrayals of the relationships, and of the economic imperatives that came to replace the old collective Soviet social order, are so tender that a very Russian melancholy, tinged with joy, is developed.
"Don't think me sad because I'm alone in the world," says one of Hobson's most tragic characters. "I've grown strong, because I rely on myself... each of us is an orphan." Evocations like this allow us to understand the widespread feeling of abandonment, and the grief that so many Russians seem to have felt--at the crushing of the old collectivism, and the arrival of an imported, individualistic way of doing things. --Toby Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Times
‘Hobson’s poignant tales of the friendships she developed are told with something of the muted emotion that suffuses Chekhov’s short stories’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Black Earth City is a poignant 12 months through the eyes of an English student in Russia. It's 1991, Communism is being dismantled and Charlotte couldn't perhaps have chosen a more turbulant time and place to spend a year out from university. More of a series of snapshots rather then the standard linear travelogue narrative, Black Earth City is an an engaging read full of colorful, yet often tragic, characters. As suggested by another reviewer this book is perhaps enjoyed best when curled up with a glass of vodka...
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
From the turbolence of Russia in 1991 and 1992 Charlotte has extracted the essence of a people who have lost all sense of direction: the old certaintites are quickly vanishing and ordinary Russians are struggling to survive in this new world order. Black Earth City conveys this sense of confusion through its colourful and sometimes melancholy characters - mostly young students with a burning desire to live for the present, while burdened by a nostalgia for the past and fearsome about their future. The joy for life shines through the narrative to produce a great read. Otdykh!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I spent a year living in Voronezh at about the same time as Charlotte Hobson is writing about. Reading her book now brings it all back. I wish I'd had both her idea and talent to write about it!
This is a fantastic book and brings to life provincial Russia and Russians at a pivotal moment in their history. The characters are all too real to me and their portrayal beautifully rendered by Hobson's prose.
This should be read by anyone wanting a glimpse of Russia outside the grand cities of Petersburg and Moscow and especially by all students of Russian contemplating their gap years. Wonderful!
This is a fantastic book and brings to life provincial Russia and Russians at a pivotal moment in their history. The characters are all too real to me and their portrayal beautifully rendered by Hobson's prose.
This should be read by anyone wanting a glimpse of Russia outside the grand cities of Petersburg and Moscow and especially by all students of Russian contemplating their gap years. Wonderful!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
It brought it all back to me
I was in Voronezh in the late 70s and stayed in the same hostel Charlotte stayed in. Reading this book, the memories came tumbling back. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mrs. Sarah Philps
An engaging read
I'd been wanting to read this book since I heard it on Radio 4's 'Book of the Week' a few years ago. Father Christmas finally delivered this year, and I wasn't disappointed. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2010 by Miss
A glimpse at a precise moment in Russian history
Hobson is an extremely friendly and likeable narrator who, in 'Black Earth City', describes her experiences as a student in Voronezh in 1991. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2008 by T. R. Cowdret
A Russian Odyssey of Love and Vodka
You wouldn't believe that this is Charlotte Hobson's book - the writing is so beautifully composed and the images hauntingly atmospheric. Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2001
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