Chekago: A Novel of Moscow Life.

London, UK Hodder & Stoughton: Sceptre, 1988. Paperback First Edition Thus (1988). First published in the same year in hardcover in the USA by Dutton. Very Near Fine in Wraps: shows a couple of extremely faint stress creases to the lower rear panel and the expected light tanning to the text pages, due to aging; the binding leans ever so slightly; else flawless; the binding remains perfectly secure; the text is clean. Free of creases to the backstrip. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of underlining, hi-lighting, notations, or marginalia. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome, very near-to-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing minor, unobtrusive imperfections only. Bright and clean. Corners sharp. Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (7.75 x 5.15 x 1 inches). 384 pages. Language: English. Weight: 12 ounces. First Edition, so stated. Paperback Original. This British edition, published as a paperback original by Sceptre, was published in the same year in hardcover in the USA by Dutton. Trade Paperback. Sarah Symmons-Goubert is an English art historian and writer. Born in London, she trained at the Courtauld Institute where she received her doctorate in 1979. She taught art history at Essex University and published several books, including works on Goya, Daumier and the sculptor John Flaxman. Symmons is also known for her fiction, which she published under the pseudonym Natalya Lowndes. Her debut novel Chekago was a critical and commercial success; her other novels are Angel in the Sun and Snow Red. She has published a large number of short stories, essays and articles and is at present the Visual Arts editor of the Hispanic Research Journal, Queen Mary, London University. The author has adopted a pseudonym to shield friends in the U.S.S.R. This is a domestic comedy set in contemporary Moscow. The irresistibly handsome, slow-on-the-uptake protagonist, Sasha Biryusov, shares a communal flat with five others, who are supposed to represent a cross-section of Muscovite society: there's Olga Melentyeva, a former aristocrat and intellectual, the Kuznetsovshe's a Jewish university teacherand their young daughter, and Lizaveta Kiprenskaya, a shrewish old-age pensioner. Olga introduces Sasha to a cultivated crowd, including a visiting American postgraduate student, Bobby Weston. Weston is eager to bed the dustman, but her weird sexual tastes send him running. Soon after she leaves, the flat comes under intense scrutiny by the KGB. Two plain-clothes policeman, known as Rocky and Bogat, take up residence in the flat, where they steal from their new flatmates and force them to listen to poetry recitations. To top it off, the widow with whom Sasha has been corresponding decides to move in as well. Sasha, who has muddled his flatmates into this mess, muddles them out of their predicament. Lowndes deftly depicts the large cast of characters who wander in and out of this lighthearted romp through the lives of these Muscovites. A bestseller in England, this is an entertaining read.