The Taste of Dreams: An Obsession With Russia and Caviar

The Bookseller
“Part travelogue, part adventure, and part history… a wonderful read and a terrifically vivid portrait of contemporary Russia.”

Jeanette Winterson
“Sexy, intelligent, the best mix of facts and desire.”

From the Publisher
The Taste of Dreams is both a quest for the romantic Russia of the author’s dreams, and a tale of amazement as she discovers and gets caught up in the new, anarchic Russia emerging from its Soviet constraints. At its heart is the story of caviar: beluga, the rarest type of sturgeon, harvested from the Caspian Sea. It is now an endangered species, and no one knows how—or wants—to stop the plunder. People kill for it. Intelligent, funny, and enormously engaging, this is a “darkly seductive tour through the new Russia.” (THE TIMES) Vanora Bennett writes for THE TIMES of London and is a former Moscow correspondent for Reuters and the LOS ANGELES TIMES. She is the author of Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya.


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London Times correspondent Bennett (Crying Wolf) has a foreigner's knack for catching Russia's contradictions. From the cramped living conditions in a land so vast to the gourmand attitude in a country of rations and long lines, she knows the tension among the government, the land, and the people, and how all three shape one another. Part memoir and part travelog, this book captures a lot about Russia, not least the sense that there is always something vaguely menacing just beyond view: the low-level radiation in vegetables, a burst of random gunfire in the distance, a sudden governmental decision to devalue the ruble, the disappearance of friends. Russia is a hard place to explain to people who haven't been there, but Bennett gets the feel of it right. Recommended for both public and academic libraries of all sizes. Travis McDade, Ohio State Univ. Law Lib., Columbus Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.


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