We all know families that are poor but 'respectable'. Mine, in contrast, was extremely rich but not 'respectable' at all... This is the extraordinary memoir of an 'odd, rich, exotic' childhood - of growing up in Azerbaijan in the turbulent early twentieth century, caught between East and West, tradition and modernity. Banine remembers her luxurious home, with endless feasts of sweets and fruit; her beloved, flaxen-haired German governess; her imperious, swearing, strict Muslim grandmother; her bickering, poker-playing, chain-smoking relatives. She recalls how the Bolsheviks came, and they lost everything. How, amid revolution and bloodshed, she fell passionately in love, only to be forced into marriage with a man she loathed- until the chance of escape arrived. By turns gossipy and romantic, wry and moving, Days in the Caucasus is a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a vanished world, and of how the past haunts us.

"Every so often a voice emerges from the archive so vivid that it seems impossible that it should ever have been forgotten" - Evening Standard

"A delightful memoir of an eventful life set against the helter-skelter of the 20th century... Banine herself shines through as an intelligent and independent spirit, longing for her own self-determination" - Financial Times

"An enchanting memoir" - Evening Standard

"I started to leaf through the book and was soon engrossed... So vividly and wittily does the author reveal to us an utterly unfamiliar world" - Teffi

"An effervescent and irreverent feat of recollection and imagination-epic in sweep yet intimate in tone-that introduces the reader to an exotic, antique world and to characters so vividly drawn that their raucous voices seem to echo long after they have vanished from sight" - Wall Street Journal

"This jewel of a memoir, written in 1945 but only now published in English, has all the makings of a Tolstoyan drama." - The New Internationalist

"Banine's autobiography captures a rarefied world on the brink of extinction" - Spectator

"Filtering her childhood ambitions through the lens of maturity, Banine recreates a world that is both believable and thoroughly engrossing" - Times Literary Supplement

"Banine tells her story - first loves, forced marriage, exile and Paris - with wit and warmth. Never one to take anything too seriously, her company - and her memoir - is a delight" - Tatler

"Banine's consummate prose is marked by undertones of erudite wittiness. Educated and pragmatic, but also hopeful, she expresses wanting nothing more than to be free to pursue self-realization. Days in the Caucasus was published in 1945; this first English translation of the memoir is an absolute joy-full of adventure, travel, and youthful dreams" - Foreword Review

"An exquisite book" - Paysage dimanche

"A devilish story, like a finely spiced dish, bringing verve, joy and charm along with its delicious style" - Action

"A vivid coming-of-age story that also provides a valuable glimpse of a life lived in a half-Islamic, half-western world at a pivotal moment in history" - The National

"[Banine] has a wickedly whetted tongue, and enough self-awareness to refuse sparing herself from her own reflections... Her writing is gorgeously translated by Anne Thomson-Ahmadova" - The Arts Desk

"Recreates a vivid world... sardonic wit and colourful characterisation... reflective and heart-wrenching... powerfully conveyed in the translated prose" - Riveting Reviews

"The memoir of a turbulent childhood in Azerbaijan" - Traveller Magazine

"Beguiling humour... arresting... [the] translation is excellent" - The London Magazine

"[A] witty and wonderful childhood memoir" - Literary Review

"Leads us on a delightful stroll, occasionally breaking into a somewhat mad dance, across a colourful, unfamiliar world" - Paru

"A stunning book... With all the freshness of childhood memories, this is anything but some sentimental story nostalgically written in flowery script on sepia paper" - Critique des idées et des livres

"An extraordinary sense of humour and a certain poetry too" - La Presse

"An intense story, often amusing, which plunges the reader into the most unfamiliar territory imaginable" - Verités

"A book to give those gloomy souls who find daily existence banal" - Lettres francaises

"A tale of immense privilege and dramatic upheaval... The wry and ribald memoir of a young woman born into a Baku oil dynasty in the twilight of the Russian Empire" - Transitions