Teffi - Böcker

BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

'Wonderfully idiosyncratic, coolly heartfelt and memorable' William Boyd

'One of the great writers of early 20th Century Russia' Simon Sebag Montefiore

'A remarkable memoir . . . both potent and endearing' Erica Wagner, New Statesman

The writer and satirist Teffi was a literary sensation in Russia until war and revolution forced her to leave her country forever. Memories is her blackly funny and heartbreaking account of her final, frantic journey into exile across Russia - travelling by cart, freight train and rickety steamer - and the 'ordinary and unheroic' people she encounters. From refugees setting up camp on a dockside to a singer desperately buying a few 'last scraps' of fabric to make a dress, all are caught up in the whirlwind; all are immortalised by Teffi's penetrating gaze.

Fusing exuberant wit and bitter horror, this is an extraordinary portrayal of what it means to say goodbye, with haunting relevance in today's new age of diaspora. Published in English for the first time, it confirms the rediscovery of Teffi as one of the most humane, perceptive observers of her times, and an essential writer for ours.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler, Anne Marie Jackson and Irina Steinberg.

Teffi (1872-1952) wrote poems, plays, stories, satires and feuilletons, and was renowned in Russia for her wit and powers of observation. Following her emigration in 1919 she settled in Paris, where she became a leading figure in the émigré literary scene. Now her genius has been rediscovered by a new generation of readers, and she once again enjoys huge acclaim in Russia and across the world. Among other selections from her work, Pushkin Press publishes Subtly Worded, a collection of her short stories, and Rasputin and Other Ironies, which includes her best non-fiction.

'Amazingly modern, as easy to devour, as, well, a box of chocolates' Rachel Cooke, Observer

'Heartbreaking as well as very funny. I wish she were still alive, and I could have met her. But then I realised she would have seen right through me' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

Teffi's genius with the short form made her a literary star in pre-revolutionary Russia, beloved by Tsar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin alike. These stories, taken from the whole of her career, show the full range of her gifts. Extremely funny - a wry, scathing observer of society - she is also capable, as capable even as Chekhov, of miraculous subtlety and depth of character.

There are stories here from her own life (as a child, going to meet Tolstoy to plead for the life of War and Peace's Prince Bolkonsky, or, much later, her strange, charged meetings with the already-legendary Rasputin). There are stories of émigré society, its members held together by mutual repulsion. There are stories of people misunderstanding each other or misrepresenting themselves. And throughout there is a sly, sardonic wit and a deep, compelling intelligence.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe.

Teffi was a phenomenally popular writer in pre-revolutionary Russia - a favourite of Tsar Nicholas II and Vladimir Lenin alike. She was born in 1872 into a prominent St Petersburg family and emigrated from Bolshevik Russia in 1919. She eventually settled in Paris, where she became an important figure in the émigré literary scene, and where she lived until her death in 1952. A master of the short form, in her lifetime Teffi published countless stories, plays and feuilletons. After her death, she was gradually forgotten, but the collapse of the Soviet Union brought about her rediscovery by Russian readers. Now, nearly a century after her emigration, she once again enjoys critical acclaim and a wide readership in her motherland and beyond. Pushkin Press also publishes Rasputin and Other Ironies and Memories - From Moscow to the Black Sea.

Anne Marie Jackson has lived for extended periods in Russia and Moldova. As well as several collaborative translations of Teffi's writing, her previous translations include works by Alexei Nikitin and Olga Slavnikova.