In the summer of 2008, Andrei Kaplan moves from New York to Moscow to look after his ageing grandmother, a woman who survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia-s violent capitalist transformation. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can-t always remember who he is. Andrei learns to navigate Putin-s Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly - but surprisingly sharp! - grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a caf-o send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia. Capturing with a miniaturist-s brush the unfolding demands of family, fortune, personal ambition, ideology, and desire, A Terrible Country is a compelling novel about ageing, radical politics, Russia at a crossroads, and the difficulty - or impossibility - of actually changing one-s life.
