Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain

A Mountain of Crumbs

A mesmerising memoir of a childhood in Soviet Russia

This is a rich experience - a personal journey paralleled by huge national changes and ending in a deeply satisfying portrait of peace in America

Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela's Ashes

The story of a young person of sparkling intelligence, full of curiosity about the world, struggling to grow and blossom under a duplicitous, censorious, and unremittingly mean-minded social system. An enthralling read

J.M. Coetzee, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature

In the spirit of Dostoyevsky, it is an endlessly Russian quest for self-redemption . . . I advise you to read the book. It will give you pleasure

Sergei Khruschchev, son of former Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev

A Mountain of Crumbs is an exquisitely wrought, tender memoir of growing up in the Soviet Union . . . Gorokhova writes about her life with a novelist's gift for threading motives around the heart of a story, following it's plot with a light touch and unwavering honesty.

Elena Gorokhova has written the Russian equivalent of Angela's Ashes, an intimate story of growing up into young womanhood told with equal grace and humor

Elena Gorokhova has written an endearing, sensitive story of her early years in the USSR. Her memoir is proof that the human spirit can triumph even in the most repressive of times

Edward Hower, author of The New Life Hotel and The Storms of May

A Mountain of Crumbs is an extraordinary memoir. Elena Gorokhova's writing - gorgeous and evocative - is enriched by her connection to two languages, Russian and English. Brilliant and moving

Ursula Hegi, author of Stones from the River

This is a diamond of a memoir. Elena Gorokhova captures the essence of a vanished world with a poet's eye, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey, where every detail transcends the commonplace and every page bears witness to the deepest longings of the human heart. This memoir offers a rare glimpse of life in the former Soviet Union, and also of the universal search for love and autonomy that binds us all together, regardless of time and place

Carlos Eire, author of Waiting for Snow in Havana

Almost painful in its authenticity, this hypnotically readable memoir has the sweep and power of a great Russian novel

Bruce Jay Friedman, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and author of A Father's Kisses and Stern

Elena Gorokhova doesn't use broad strokes to paint a picture of daily life in Brezhnev-era Soviet Union. Vivid memories, such as licking fresh raspberry jam out of a wooden bowl as her mother prepares food for the winter months, or the familiar, comforting scent of her father - tobacco and brown soap - brightly dot the harsh, gray background of everyday life in Gorokhova's native Leningrad. As Western culture peeks through cracks in the Iron Curtain in the 1960s and '70s, Gorokhova is determined to see what's on the other side and have new experiences, like eating "something called a shrimp." Her spare lyricism delicately captures a vanished world

A smart, spirited tale about growing up in the colorless Soviet Union

Rich with honesty and insight . . . a stunning memoir: subtle, yet brimming with depth and detail. It leaves you wanting more

A Mountain of Crumbs is written above all with an almost painful tenderness that brought a lump to my throat more than once ... Gorokhova's memoir looks back with love at the lost world of the dacha, of mushroom-picking in the forest, and the utterly reassuring homeland contained within her mother's apple-print polyester dress. Her prose brims with an elegiac emotion and sensuality which even Turgenev, in his own European exile, might have envied

Combining Gorokhova's fantastic eye for an image with her acute sense for the absurd, A Mountain of Crumbs: growing Up Behind The Iron Curtain elegantly dramatises the bewildering chasm between the projected, glittering idealism of the Soviet Union and its drab, quotidian reality

An exquisitely moving memoir detailing Gorokhova's experiences of growing up behind the Iron Curtain. Her story of oppression and hope is described in distinctive poetical prose

Despite the specificity of the memoir, the themes and characters have universality - a domineering mother, a rebellious child, finding passion and beauty in the surprising places. A celebration of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity and oppression

In this gently delightful memoir, Elena Gorokhova recounts her coming of age in Russia during 1960s and 1970s ... There's a wonderful cosy intimacy to her writing; her use of the present tense keeps it fresh and unburdened ... I loved reading A Mountain of Crumbs. Gorokhova is a fine writer with a delicate, sensitive touch, whose voice in nonetheless fearless and clarion. I hope there's a sequel. After coming of age comes surely that other great memoir, coming to America

Her richly detailed story explores the reality of her politically subversive passions for language and freedom in a fearful, failing society that distrusted its citizens and repressed individuality

It takes talent to write a good memoir and Gorokhova has more than most. Fascinating anecdotes show us her mother's youth, and her own recollections spring to life with an artist's eye for those details that can conjure a mood or a moment. The privations, oppressions and joys are all described with shining curiosity in this captivating book

Gorokhova's beautiful understated portrait of her childhood ... her evocation of her formidable mother - who asks Stalin personally for funds for a maternity ward, and gets them - is among the memorable gems of her deceptively masterful tale

Elena Gorokhova grew up in St Petersburg, Russia, although for most of her life it was known as Leningrad. At the age of twenty-four she married an American and came to the United States with one twenty-kilogram suitcase to start a new life. Now Elena is a writer and lives in New Jersey.

A Mountain of Crumbs is the moving story of a young Soviet girl's discovery of the hidden truths of adulthood and her country's profound political deception. 
 
Elena, born with a desire to explore the world beyond her borders, finds her passion in the complexity of the English language - but in the Soviet Union of the 1960s, such a passion verges on the subversive. Elena's home is no longer the majestic Russia of literature or the tsars. Instead, it is a nation humiliated by its first faltering steps after World War II, putting up appearances for the sake of its regime and fighting to retain its pride. 
 
In this deeply affecting memoir, Elena re-creates the world that both oppressed and inspired her. She recounts stories passed down to her about the horrors of the Bolshevik Revolution and probes the daily deprivations and small joys of her family's bunkerlike existence. Through Elena's captivating voice, we learn not only the personal story of Russia in the second half of the twentieth century, but also the story of one rebellious citizen whose love of a foreign language finally transports her to a new world. 
 
'This moving memoir made me cry' 
The New York Times

Elena Gorokhova

Full of vivid imagery and memorable description, this is a wonderful trip into existential bewilderment ... As a sequel or a stand-alone, Russian Tattoo is compelling, colourful and hugely enjoyable.

This incredibly powerful book slips into your unconscious with charm and warmth and then grabs you by the gut. By the time you reach the end, you’ll have experienced the laughter, sorrow, joy, regret, love and hurt of a real life. And you’ll have a lump in your throat the size of Petersburg. 
With a magical command of language, Elena Gorokhova has painted images on my brain I won’t forget, as if I’d lived those moments myself. Because, somehow, I did.

Alan Alda, bestselling author of Never Have Your Dog Stuffed

Written with a novelist’s touch ... Gorokhova weaves a rich tapestry of meaning, juxtaposing her current situation with her previous life experience ... The descriptions of life in Leningrad make the memoir a fascinating insight into life behind the Iron Curtain ... Gorokhova’s honesty and unflinching rendering of her life’s trials and tribulations are testament to her writing skill ... One of the most touching memoirs I’ve ever read; I defy you not to shed a tear.

An affecting and beautifully written meditation on the mother-daughter bond; and on being inextricably caught in limbo between two worlds

Russian Tattoo is the story of an immigrant, of leaving what you know and love. It is the story of mothers and daughters, of three generations of strong women battling for control. It is about loss and grief, wounds that sever our souls in half and never heal. It is ultimately the story of love, forgiveness, and the desire to belong.

Anya von Bremzen, author of Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING 
 
‘Incredibly powerful … by the time you reach the end, you’ll have experienced the laughter, sorrow, joy, regret, love and hurt of a real life.’ Alan Alda 
 
‘The possibility of leaving Russia was never as thrilling as the prospect of leaving my mother.’ 
 
When Elena Gorokhova arrives in America, the only link back to her Russian past is a suitcase filled with twenty kilograms of what used to be her life. Navigating a country she had been taught to fear, Elena begins to carve out a new life in an unfamiliar world. 
 
Before the birth of Elena's daughter, her mother comes to visit and stays for twenty-four years. Elena, must struggle with the challenge of raising an American daughter whilst living with her controlling mother, a mirror image of her Motherland. 
 
Russian Tattoo is the story of what it means to be an outsider, and what happens when the cultures of our past and present collide. Above all, it is an insightful portrait of mothers and daughters.

Elena Gorokhova

Praise for Russian Tattoo

Full of vivid imagery and memorable description, this is a wonderful trip into existential bewilderment ... As a sequel or a stand-alone, Russian Tattoo is compelling, colourful and hugely enjoyable.

This incredibly powerful book slips into your unconscious with charm and warmth and then grabs you by the gut. By the time you reach the end, you’ll have experienced the laughter, sorrow, joy, regre ...

Written with a novelist’s touch ... Gorokhova weaves a rich tapestry of meaning, juxtaposing her current situation with her previous life experience ... The descriptions of life in Leningrad make the m ...

Full of vivid imagery and memorable description, this is a wonderful trip into existential bewilderment ... As a sequel or a stand-alone, Russian Tattoo is compelling, colourful and hugely enjoyable.

This incredibly powerful book slips into your unconscious with charm and warmth and then grabs you by the gut. By the time you reach the end, you’ll have experienced the laughter, sorrow, joy, regre ...

Written with a novelist’s touch ... Gorokhova weaves a rich tapestry of meaning, juxtaposing her current situation with her previous life experience ... The descriptions of life in Leningrad make the m ...

Full of vivid imagery and memorable description, this is a wonderful trip into existential bewilderment ... As a sequel or a stand-alone, Russian Tattoo is compelling, colourful and hugely enjoyable.

This incredibly powerful book slips into your unconscious with charm and warmth and then grabs you by the gut. By the time you reach the end, you’ll have experienced the laughter, sorrow, joy, regre ...

Written with a novelist’s touch ... Gorokhova weaves a rich tapestry of meaning, juxtaposing her current situation with her previous life experience ... The descriptions of life in Leningrad make the m ...

Books by Elena Gorokhova

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