Black Earth City: A Year in the Heart of Russia (Paperback)

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.

Review
'Hobson's poignant tales of the friendships she developed...are told with something of the muted emotion that suffuses Chekhov's short stories' The Times 'Russia is a place that makes huge demands on the heart to be understood, and, out of what she did and did not like, Charlotte Hobson has fashioned a valuable memoir of an age which will surely never return' Literary Review 'Profoundly moving... Hobson's prose is unselfconsciously precise and poetic, her images of Voronezh and its characters poignant and unforgettable' Sunday Times

To read this memoir is to be lulled by the soothing words of a great storyteller: the sounds of the words are as important as the tale itself. The book charts a year Hobson spent in provincial Russia, in the closing days of the Soviet Union. It's a dark yet passionate time, tinged with fear and uncertainty. Hobson reveals a world of extreme sensitivity and gentleness, but one that is about to change utterly. Most of us watched that time on television. We can remember the big political events - tanks rumbling forward through Red Square and the Wall coming down. We may have seen the news, but we are ignorant of the detail - the true atmosphere of the time. Black Earth City allows the reader to slip into the hidden world of the Eastern bloc, and soak up an innocence that no longer exists. Charlotte Hobson's book centres around the sombre black-earthed town of Voronezh. The themes are friendship, youth and a passionate liaison with a young local man, called Mitya. The society is reminiscent in many ways of post-war Britain. Traditional values abound, as do heavy family-orientated meals, long floral-print dresses, stolen kisses and filterless cigarettes. But whereas a first date in the '40s might have included a foxtrot, Mitya sweeps Charlotte off her feet, taking her to a reading by Garkusha, 'a punk poet, dancer and something of a cult figure for young Russians'. The real delight here is not what happens, but the words with which the story is told. Hobson's language is carefully selected, poetic in itself. It sucks you in and lulls you with its music. At the last word on the last page, I found myself flicking back to the beginning to start all over again. Tahir Shah is the author of In Search of King Solomon's Mines. (Kirkus UK)

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