New release. “Memoirs of a Russianist, Volume II: Russia in the Roaring 1990s”

My publisher and online retailers are working wonders.  The official release date of my new volume II of the Memoirs of a Russianist was two days ago, 12 February, and today, Sunday, Amazon has already put up a web page and is accepting orders on its global websites, including amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.nl, amazon.fr

To find this page on any of the amazon websites, just type into the search box “Doctorow, Memoirs of a Russianist, Volume II”. Once on the page select hardbound or paperback.

In the days ahead they will add functions to this page such as the browsing function “Look Inside” and a tab to show enlarged screen of front and back covers. But the main thing is there:  the option to order the book in either paperback or hard bound.  An e-book format will be added within a couple of weeks.

As you see from the technical description, the book is immense, 788 pages. 

I was not trying to outdo Kissinger and his several 1100 page books of memoirs. Indeed the only commonality with his works is that books this size are meant to be consulted, to be sampled according to the interests of the reader.  

In fact, the book is 80% diary entries because I wanted to allow the reader to draw his or her own conclusions about Russia in the 1990s and not to spoon feed the reader with my/our views in 2021.   

Not every diary entry in this book will interest every reader, but I hope you will find enough of them to give you pleasure and satisfaction with the purchase.

The quote from the book now on the Amazon page is in fact the text I chose to put on the back cover – to whet appetites.  Judging by the comments I have received from various correspondents, I think this works well.  If you like this text, then you will like a lot of what is inside the book.

Please do let me know your thoughts as you make your way into this work.  I am planning to do a revised edition in a year or so combining the narrative part of Volume I and some diary entries from there with the entire text of Volume II.  Such is the solution I am using for the Russian edition of this book that will be published in St Petersburg later in the spring. Many thanks for your interest in this book.