A Mountain of Crumbs and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime free trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn more
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
Price: £4.22

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
A Mountain of Crumbs: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
 
 
Start reading A Mountain of Crumbs on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

A Mountain of Crumbs: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain [Paperback]

Elena Gorokhova
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.39 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.60 (29%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.
Only 10 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want guaranteed delivery by Saturday, June 2? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £5.84  
Paperback £6.39  
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea £5.06

A Mountain of Crumbs: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain + Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea
Price For Both: £11.45

Show availability and delivery details



Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Windmill Books (19 Aug 2010)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099537648
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099537649
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 162,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elena Gorokhova
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Visit Amazon's Elena Gorokhova Page

Product Description

Review

This is a rich experience - a personal journey paralleled by huge national challenges and ending in a deeply satisfying portrait of peace in america --Frank McCourt

The story of a young person of sparkling intelligence, full of curiosity about the world, struggling to grow and blossom under a duplicitous, censorious, and unrelentingly mean-minded social system. An enthralling read --J M Coetzee

An exquisitely wrought, tender memoir of growing up in the Soviet Union... Gorokhova writes about her life with a novelist's gift for threading motives around the heart of a story, following its plot with a light touch and unwavering honesty
--New York Times

'It is a bittersweet tale of life in the former Soviet Union, rich with honesty and insight... a stunning memoir: subtle, yet brimming with depth and detail. It leaves you wanting more.' -- Guardian

'This moving memoir made me cry'
--The New York Times

`rich with honesty and insight... a stunning memoir: subtle, yet brimming with depth and detail. It leaves you wanting more'
--Daily Telegraph

`'A Mountain of Crumbs' is written above all with an almost painful tenderness that brought a lump to my throat more than once ... Gorokhova's memoir looks back with love at the lost world of the dacha, of mushroom-picking in the forest, and the utterly reassuring homeland contained within her mother's apple-print polyester dress. Her prose brims with an elegiac emotion and sensuality which even Turgenev, in his own European exile, might have envied.' -- Spectator

`Combining Gorokhova's fantastic eye for an image with her acute sense for the absurd, 'A Mountain of Crumbs: growing Up Behind The Iron Curtain' elegantly dramatises the bewildering chasm between the projected, glittering idealism of the Soviet Union and its drab, quotidian reality.' -- Metro

`An exquisitely moving memoir detailing Gorokhova's experiences of growing up behind the Iron Curtain. Her story of oppression and hope is described in distinctive poetical prose.' -- Marie Claire

`Despite the specificity of the memoir, the themes and characters have universality - a domineering mother, a rebellious child, finding passion and beauty in the surprising places. A celebration of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity and oppression.' -- Easy Living

`In this gently delightful memoir, Elena Gorokhova recounts her coming of age in Russia during 1960s and 1970s ... There's a wonderful cosy intimacy to her writing; her use of the present tense keeps it fresh and unburdened ... I loved reading 'A Mountain of Crumbs'. Gorokhova is a fine writer with a delicate, sensitive touch, whose voice in nonetheless fearless and clarion. I hope there's a sequel. After coming of age comes surely that other great memoir, coming to America.'
-- The Sunday Times

`Her richly detailed story explores the reality of her politically subversive passions for language and freedom in a fearful, failing society that distrusted its citizens and repressed individuality.' -- Saga

`It takes talent to write a good memoir and Gorokhova has more than most. Fascinating anecdotes show us her mother's youth, and her own recollections spring to life with an artist's eye for those details that can conjure a mood or a moment. The privations, oppressions and joys are all described with shining curiosity in this captivating book.' -- WBQ

`Gorokhova's beautiful understated portrait of her childhood ... her evocation of her formidable mother - who asks Stalin personally for funds for a maternity ward, and gets them - is among the memorable gems of her deceptively masterful tale.' --Sunday Times

Book Description

A mesmerising memoir of a childhood in Soviet Russia

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

3 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
This book describes the author's life whilst growing up as a slightly rebellious teenager in Soviet Russia in the 1960s. It's extremely well written, very funny in places and an excellent way to learn about life in cold war Russia. Some of the scenes (such as the restaurant with the 20 page menu but only beef stroganoff available) remind me of (quite recent) travels in Eastern Europe. These comic moments are skillfully interspersed with tales of true hardship and poverty.

The author is to be congratulated for writing a book set in this era which is neither anti-capitalist nor anti-communist: it reads as an honest report of how life was, and about her perceptions of the West, without making any moral judgements about the relative merits of each system.

This book has made me want to read Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov and the other "subversive" Russian writers she mentions (and to visit Russia!).
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Parallel 9 Sep 2010
Format:Paperback
I'm married to a Russian woman who was brought up in St Petersberg at roughly the same period. The book rings very true.

It's interesting to compare the time it takes for this Russian woman to start questioning the tenets of communist orthodoxy and how long it seemed to take the Chinese. In "Wild Swans" the author seems to have swallowed the message whole until well past adolescence, whereas here there is a healthy dose of doubt from an early age.

A useful book, I think, which offsets the extraordinary ignorance of British reviewers as to the mind set of the Russian people.
Was this review helpful to you?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A Mountain of Crumbs 10 April 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book follows Elena Gorokova as she grown up in post-Stalinist Russia, and describes the way of life in this closed, paranoid, Communist society.

Gorokova produces what seems to be a honest picture of her life behind the iron curtain, her family and the after-effects of living under Stalin. Things that seem far away now are brought closer by her intimate descriptions - Like her father losing his teeth because of starvation, and her Soviet mother's stranglehold on her daughters.

I found I instantly warmed to the narrating voice in this book. Gorokova writes in a sensitive, feminine, descriptive way which feels natural and honest. At times this book is dry and humorous, other times melancholy, but it is always interesting and enlighteing. I have read a lot about the Soviet Union and Russia, but never come across this kind of perspective - Female, and written post-emigration to the United States, with all the hinsight and wisdom that brings.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges