A Terrible Country

An academic in his thirties, not too ambitious and a bit lost in his career, returns to his country of origin - Russia - to take care of his aging grandmother. What we get is an outsider's perspective of what it must be like to live in Moscow. Everyone's suspicious of foreigners, the coffeshops are overpriced, the KGB building is just around the corner, the hockey games are omnipresent but hard to find, all political protest is immediately surpressed, and people dream of going to their dachas in the summer. Corruption, dissent and nostalgia coexist.

I quite liked this, it had a good flow and just about the right level of politics. And even though the main character was ultimately flawed, he still mostly did a good job taking care of his forgetful yet still rather active 90 year old grandma, and I enjoyed witnessing that.

When they finally had to move their grandma, they cried, and so did I.The plumbing episode was weirdly detailed.

Read for TOB2019, and honestly probably would not have picked it up otherwise.
I mean, a privileged white male from the academic world? UHHHHHGGHHHG.
Here's the thing, I ended up loving it because I can't even remember the last time I read something set in contemporary Russia and I fell in love with the grandmother. In fact, I loved all of the characters except the main character. Yulia was brilliant.
It was totally readable, I found myself looking up and realizing I had just pounded out chapters. Great voice.
I hope some of it sticks with me, and I will remember that I enjoyed reading it.