" ... And people saw that every sort of beauty, every sort of love was from the gods, and they became free and bold, and they grew WINGS." 🪽 ---- Mikhail Kuzmin from his novella Wings, 1906

#wings #novella #novel #mikhailkuzmin #quote #beauty #love #onbeauty #onlove #onloveandbeauty #thegods #russianwriter #russianliterature #russianauthor #russiannovelist #fiction #books #book #livres #mybookshelf

Marlene Dietrich & Konstantin Paustovsky

Just finished 'The Story of a Life' by Konstantin Paustovsky (1892-1968), Russian writer nominated 4 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was of Zaporozhian, Turkish + Polish descent + raised mostly in Ukraine

In her autobiography, Marlene Dietrich devoted an entire chapter to the author inspired by his novel 'Telegram' :
"This novel made so great an impression on me that I could no more forget it than I could the name of the author, of whom I had never heard before"
In 1964, Dietrich arrived in the Soviet Union on a concert tour. As soon as she got off the plane she asked about Paustovsky. Despite being ill, Paustovsky attended the performance + afterwards went up on the stage. “I was so shocked by his presence that, being unable to utter a word in Russian, I did not find any other way to express my admiration for him, except to kneel in front of him"

#konstantinPaustovsky #marlenedietrich #thestoryofalife #autobiography #sovietauthor #sovietwriter #russianwriter #russiannovelist #russianauthor #instabooks #booksofinstagram #mybookshelf #readinglist #mybooks #bookworld #books #ilovebooks #livres #biblio #buch #bücher #книги

The Torrents of Spring

Just finished reading Torrents of Spring the 1872 novella by Ivan Turgenev. It is partly autobiographical, centering on a young Russian landowner who falls in love for the first time while visiting the German city of Frankfurt.

#torrentsofspring #ivanturgenev #thetorrentsofspring #novel #novella #Вешниеводы #ИванТургенев #book #books #mybookshelf #booklist #mybooklist #author #russianbook #russianauthor

Lyudmila Ulitskaya is a Russian writer, now living in Berlin, after speaking out against the war in Ukraine. Last night I finished what could be her final novel Jacob’s Ladder - a family saga spanning a century of recent Russian history. The story alternates effortlessly between characters and time frames, leading to an extremely satisfying conclusion in modern Russia. Ulitskaya has used excerpts from actual family letters and KGB files for details.

#lyudmilaulitskaya #jacobsladder #novel #novelist #author #writer #russianauthor #russianwriter #antiwar #familysaga #jewishfamily #sovietrussia #book #books #mybookshelf #booklist #bookrecommendation #bookrecommendations #bookworld #activist #buch #buchen #livre #livres #libros #ЛюдмилаУлицкая #Книги