The Captive Reader

How is it that, until New Year’s Eve, I’d never heard of the Eastern European Reading Challenge?  I’m not hugely into challenges but surely if there were ever a challenge tailor-made to suit my reading interests this would be it – especially since it lumps central European countries in with the truly eastern ones; I may disapprove of this in principle but it’s certainly convenient in terms of matching my areas of interest with the parameters of the challenge!  I’ve already got a number of titles out of the library or on hold that will work perfectly.

I have signed up for the Scholar level – 12 books over 12 months.  Participates must choose titles about or by an author from any of the following regions:  Croatia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Belarus, Estonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Rep., Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Romania, Moldova, and Kosovo.  I love to read memoirs by both natives and outsiders but would also love to read more translated fiction from these countries.

I had a ridiculous amount of fun making this reading list.  Goodness knows how closely I’ll stick to it (my previous experience with challenges would indicate that I’ll be easily distracted) but spending a few hours making it yesterday was certainly a wonderful way to start 2011.  If you have any recommendations (perhaps old favourites or just titles you’re interested in) please let me know!

A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova
The moving story of a young Soviet girl’s discovery of the hidden truths of adulthood and her country’s profound political deception.

Travels in Serbia by Ian Frazier
A unique chronicle of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, a personal account of adventures among Russian friends and acquaintances, and, above all, a unique, captivating, totally Frazierian take on what he calls the “amazingness” of Russia—a country that, for all its tragic history, somehow still manages to be funny.

Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
What if the Soviet ‘miracle’ had worked, and the communists had discovered the secret to prosperity, progress and happiness…?

Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough
Recounts the struggle and survival of peoples who have been mostly forgotten for two hundred years. Their fame is not great, but truly it deserves to be.

Black Earth City: A Year in the Heart of Russia by Charlotte Hobson
This is an account of a young woman’s heady encounter with Russia – and a society in collapse. In 1991, Charlotte Hobson went to study for a year in the provincial town of Voronezh. She captures the lives of her young contemporaries as the Soviet Union breaks up around them.

Among the Russians by Colin Thubron
A marvellous account of a solitary journey by car from St. Petersburg and the Baltic States south to Georgia and Armenia.

Bread and Ashes: A Walk Through the Mountains of Georgia by Tony Anderson
On a walk from the Caspian to the Black Sea, Tony Anderson discovers that the vibrant culture of Georgia has managed to survive centuries of devastation and remain deeply connected to its ancient ways.

The End of a Family Story by Péter Nádas
Set in Hungary in the 1950s, when Stalinist repression has reduced the populace to silence and deception, this book tells the story of an old man who flees to his memories of the past. For his grandson, he invents a fantastic tapestry of stories, a family saga, and a world of myths and legends.

A Romantic Education by Patricia Hampl
I’ve been interested in this travelogue/memoir of Hampl’s quest for her Czech identity for several years now and was thrilled when Carolyn gave me a copy just before I left Calgary.

The Final Year by Ilse Tielsch
In this gentle and simultaneously amusing, yet ominous, autobiographical novel, Ilse Tielsch describes the events of 1938 on the Austrian-Czech border, as seen through the eyes of a bright-eyed and curious ten-year-old girl.

War with the Newts by Karel Čapek
I’ve only just learned that Čapek and my great-grandfather went to school together and remained good friends afterwards.  Not surprisingly, this has given me renewed interest in his works.  War with the Newts seems to be the easiest to get hold of but I’d also love to read Nine Fairy Tales (and One More Thrown in for Good Measure).

How I Came to Know Fish by Ota Pavel
A magical memoir of Pavel’s childhood in Czechoslovakia. Fishing with his father and his Uncle Prosek – the two finest fishermen in the world – he takes a peaceful pleasure from the rivers and ponds of his country. But when the Nazis invade, his father and two older brothers are sent to concentration camps and Pavel must steal their confiscated fish back from under the noses of the SS to feed his family. With tales of his father’s battle to provide for his family both in wealthy freedom and in terrifying persecution, this is one boy’s passionate and affecting tale of life, love and fishing.

The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Rezzori
Gregor von Rezzori’s haunting evocation of his childhood in Czernowitz, in present-day Ukraine. Growing up after the First World War, Rezzori portrays a twilit world suspended between the dying ways of an imperial past and the terrors of the twentieth century. He recalls his volatile, boar-hunting father, his earthy nursemaid, his fragile, aristocratic mother, his adored governess and the tragic death of his beloved sister, in a luminous story of war, unrest, eccentricity, folk tales, dark forests, night flights, and what it is like to lose your home.

The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek
Hasek’s most important work was centered around the deeply funny story of a hapless Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army — dismissed for incompetence only to be pressed into service by the Russians in World War I (where he is captured by his own troops). A mischief-maker, bohemian and drunk, Hasek demonstrated his wit in this classic novel of the Czech character and preposterous nature of war.

Prague Tales by Jan Neruda
A collection of Neruda’s intimate, bitter-sweet stories of life among the inhabitants of Mala Strana, the Little Quarter of nineteenth century Prague. These vignettes established Neruda as the quintessential Czech nineteenth century realist.

A Country in the Moon by Michael Moran
Travels in search of the heart of Poland.

Along the Enchanted Way by William Blacker
When William Blacker first crossed the snow-bound passes of northern Romania, he stumbled upon an almost medieval world. There, for many years he lived side by side with the country people, a life ruled by the slow cycle of the seasons, far away from the frantic rush of the modern world.

A Street without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria by Kapka Kassabova
In this illuminating and entertaining memoir, Kapka revisits Bulgaria and her own muddled relationship to it, travelling back to the scenes of her childhood, sampling its bizarre tourist sites, uncovering its centuries’ old history of bloodshed and blurred borders, and capturing the absurdities and idiosyncrasies of her own and her country’s past.

Like Eating a Stone: Surviving the Past in Bosnia by Wojciech Tochman, translated by Antonia Lloy
A brief, lyrical evocation of the aftermath of the Bosnian disaster‹the reverberations of which continue to this day.

Bridge Over the Drina by Ivo Andric
A vivid depiction of the suffering history has imposed upon the people of Bosnia from the late 16th century to the beginning of World War I. (Novel)

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia by Rebecca West
Written on the brink of World War II, Rebecca West’s classic examination of the history, people, and politics of Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is still a focus of international concern. A magnificent blend of travel journal, cultural commentary, and historical insight, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon probes the troubled history of the Balkans and the uneasy relationships among its ethnic groups. The landscape and the people of Yugoslavia are brilliantly observed as West untangles the tensions that rule the country’s history as well as its daily life.

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