Service95 Recommends is the home of the books we love and reviews from our contributors. In Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, a unique portrait of post-Soviet society is fashioned.
What Paul Murray Says: “This is the fall of the Soviet Union presented as a kind of jigsaw or mosaic of individual anecdotes and accounts. Alexeivich travels through the ruins of the empire, gathering the experiences of people who lived through the collapse. Told in their own words, their stories are sometimes hair-raising, sometimes hilarious, always deeply human.”
What They Say: “The non-fiction volume that has done the most to deepen the emotional understanding of Russia during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union of late is Svetlana Alexievich’s oral history Second-Hand Time.” — David Remnick, New Yorker
Available on Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
For more book recommendations, subscribe to our newsletter
