Red Plenty (Paperback)

Francis Spufford (author)

£10.99

Paperback 448 Pages / Published: 07/07/2011

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Synopsis

The Soviet Union was founded on a fairytale. It was built on 20th-century magic called 'the planned economy', which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the penny-pinching lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late fifties, the magic seemed to be working. Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came and went away; about the brief era when, under the rash leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union looked forward to a future of rich communists and envious capitalists, when Moscow would out-glitter Manhattan, every Lada would be better engineered than a Porsche and sputniks would lead the way to the stars. It's about the scientists who did their best to make the dream come true, to give the tyranny its happy ending.

Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 9780571225248
Number of pages: 448
Weight: 349 g
Dimensions: 200 x 128 x 27 mm
Edition: Main

MEDIA REVIEWS

"A hammer-and-sickle version of Altman's Nashville, with central committees replacing country music . . . [Spufford] has one of the most original minds in contemporary literature." --Nick Hornby, "The Believer"

"A thrilling book that all enthusiasts of the Big State should read." --Michael Burleigh, "The Sunday Telegraph"