I finished this book whilst spending Christmas last year on Koh Rong Island, Cambodia.

In a Nutshell:

This memoir recounts Bibish’s childhood in Uzbekistan, getting married and time spent living in Russia with her husband and children.

Themes:

Love, loss, family, identity and the many hardships women worldwide have to endure.

Warning: there is mention of sexual assault

A Quote:

An Observation:

This previous quote made me think of the current war that Russia instigated.

Author: Bibish

Bibish was a street vendor in a province of Moscow when she wrote her memoir. She now lives with her two sons and husband in the city of Vladimir in central Russia, where she is an instructor of Eastern dance at “Studio Bibish.”

Translator: Andrew Bromfield

Andrew Bromfield is from the UK and he has been a Russian-English translator from Russian to English for over twenty years. In 1991 he was a founding editor of the journal Glas: New Russian Writing.

Publisher: Atlantic Books

Publishing Date: 01.08.2009

A bit about me!

A bit about me, my name is Jess Andoh-Thayre. I am from Brixton, South London. I currently live in Cambodia. Before living here in Cambodia, I lived in Tanzania with my husband, who is a diplomat. I have also lived in Chile and Spain. I am a French, Spanish and English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher. I recently qualified as a SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator). After taking three years off to have a baby in a pandemic and also retrain, I have just returned to work as an Elementary Learning Support Teacher.