Masha Gessen is the Russian correspondent for US World and News Report. She has been a contributor to Granta and is the author of Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia after Communism. She lives in Moscow.

'Her book is truly exceptional, and deserves a prize' Independent 'I loved this saga of two fascinating Russian-Jewish women making ends meet, making love, making homes, making agonizing compromises in the most terrible times of the twentieth century and much is in the telling: witty, colourful, tragic, seething with life and character, it is a little classic of storytelling' Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar 'It's a thoughtful, thought-provoking book with an excellent sense of time and place' Choice 'The book is held together by the twin themes of compromise and survival' Virginia Rounding, Guardian

Masha Gessen is the Russian correspondent for US World and News Report. She has been a contributor to Granta and is the author of Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia after Communism. She lives in Moscow.

'Her book is truly exceptional, and deserves a prize' Independent 'I loved this saga of two fascinating Russian-Jewish women making ends meet, making love, making homes, making agonizing compromises in the most terrible times of the twentieth century and much is in the telling: witty, colourful, tragic, seething with life and character, it is a little classic of storytelling' Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar 'It's a thoughtful, thought-provoking book with an excellent sense of time and place' Choice 'The book is held together by the twin themes of compromise and survival' Virginia Rounding, Guardian

Masha Gessen is the Russian correspondent for US World and News Report. She has been a contributor to Granta and is the author of Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia after Communism. She lives in Moscow.

'Her book is truly exceptional, and deserves a prize' Independent 'I loved this saga of two fascinating Russian-Jewish women making ends meet, making love, making homes, making agonizing compromises in the most terrible times of the twentieth century and much is in the telling: witty, colourful, tragic, seething with life and character, it is a little classic of storytelling' Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar 'It's a thoughtful, thought-provoking book with an excellent sense of time and place' Choice 'The book is held together by the twin themes of compromise and survival' Virginia Rounding, Guardian