Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award 'A gem of a book, informative, companionable, sometimes funny, and wholly original. MacLean must surely be the outstanding, and most indefatigable, traveller-writer of our time' John le Carr??? In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. In that euphoric year Rory MacLean travelled from Berlin to Moscow, exploring lands that were - for most Brits and Americans - part of the forgotten half of Europe. Thirty years on, MacLean traces his original journey backwards, across ...
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Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award 'A gem of a book, informative, companionable, sometimes funny, and wholly original. MacLean must surely be the outstanding, and most indefatigable, traveller-writer of our time' John le Carr??? In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. In that euphoric year Rory MacLean travelled from Berlin to Moscow, exploring lands that were - for most Brits and Americans - part of the forgotten half of Europe. Thirty years on, MacLean traces his original journey backwards, across countries confronting old ghosts and new fears: from revanchist Russia, through Ukraine's bloodlands, into illiberal Hungary, and then Poland, Germany and the UK. Along the way he shoulders an AK-47 to go hunting with Moscow's chicken Tsar, plays video games in St Petersburg with a cyber-hacker who cracked the US election, drops by the Che Guevara High School of Political Leadership in a non-existent nowhereland and meets the Warsaw doctor who tried to stop a march of 70,000 nationalists. Finally, on the shores of Lake Geneva, he waits patiently to chat with Mikhail Gorbachev. As Europe sleepwalks into a perilous new age, MacLean explores how opportunists - both within and outside of Russia, from Putin to Home Counties populists - have made a joke of truth, exploiting refugees and the dispossessed, and examines the veracity of historical narrative from reportage to fiction and fake news. He asks what happened to the optimism of 1989 and, in the shadow of Brexit, chronicles the collapse of the European dream.
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Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $3.21, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $3.21, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $5.89, like new condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $6.74, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Emerald rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
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Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $8.95, very good condition, Sold by ABC Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Springfield, MO, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
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Very good. Boards and spine tight. Nice copy, with little to no wear. No apparent marks throughout this book. Tracking available on most domestic orders.
Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $14.07, new condition, Sold by upickbooks/Daisy Li rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Daly City, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $17.49, new condition, Sold by Thevillagebookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Fall River, MA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Add this copy of Pravda Ha Ha: True Travels to the End of Europe to cart. $17.99, very good condition, Sold by Russell Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Victoria, BC, CANADA, published 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
This book, a satire of Eastern Europe but mainly directed against Russia, is oddly out of place for a British citizen whose country is in a dire state and frequently referred to as broken. Whether power is exercised by V. Putin or English nincompoops and liars such as Thatcher, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak, as well as all those in between, the results are equally lamentable. Deregulation, privatization and tax relief for the wealthy have made life miserable for people who were thought to be of a First-World nation but are finding themselves in a Third-World one. Russia, in World War Two was the prime force in defeating Germany. The contributions of the Western Allies were a lesser factor, and thus The USSR saved Britain and Western Europe from German domination. Russia wanted a buffer zone in Eastern Europe to offer protection from future invasions, and, in view of the death and destruction suffered from the German invasion of 1941, this is clearly understandable. The West is deeply indebted to Russia for its contributions to defeating Nazi Germany, but given the rapid turn-around in Western policy after 1945, I ask if perhaps the Allies were not truly using the Red Army as cannon fodder. There are better travel books than this. Don't waste money on this. It's only good for kindling.
