Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator and the author of Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy and three previous books on Russia. Before becoming a historian, he worked for the U. S. State Department in the Soviet Union and as a Russian affairs analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.Recently I asked the author what he was reading. His reply:
If there is one book, or series, that is, I would want everyone to pick up and read it would have to be the Patrick Melrose novels by EdwardWatch the trailer for Former People, and learn more about the book and author at Douglas Smith's website.St. Aubyn. Acerbic, witty, unflinchingly honest and simultaneously heartrending and hilarious, St. Aubyn’s books—Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, Mother’s Milk, and At Last, published in the US earlier this year—are without doubt one of the great literary achievements in English of the past decades. St. Aubyn is one of those rare writers who has to be read and then read again and again.
The Page 99 Test: Former People.
--Marshal Zeringue
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