A Mountain of Crumbs

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

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

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

Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate

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

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.

The New York Times

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

USA Today

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

People Magazine

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

This moving memoir made me cry

The New York Times

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

The Daily Telegraph

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

Spectator

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

Metro

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

Marie Claire

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

Easy Living

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

The Sunday Times

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

Saga

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

WBQ

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

Sunday Times