Black Earth City

A collection of travel essays about the disintegration of Russia in 1991. Charlotte Hobson captures the lives of her young contemporaries, including Yegor, and his brutal memories of military service, and Zossya, who stokes the boiler of a house for deaf and dumb people.

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The story 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: Viktor, and his brutal memories of military service; Lola who sleeps with her fellow students for a share of their dinner; Yakov, blowing a million roubles of the Salvation Army's money on a taxi to Minsk to see a girl. Here too is the author's story and Mitya's. Their love affair begins in a mood of wild optimism. Anything, it seems, is possible. Until in spring the snow thaws, and reveals the black earth beneath.