{"title":"Peter Gonda","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"drinking-and-driving-in-chechnya-book-peter-gonda-9781859641057","title":"Drinking and Driving in Chechnya","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt is the mid-1990s, and ordinary Russians are reeling from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Old habits clash with new money, and war rages between Russia and the breakaway Chechen republic.\u003cbr\u003eLeonid, a hard-luck truck driver, lives with his senile, military-veteran father in Moscow and ferries shipments of illicit goods all over Russia for his Mafiya bosses. He nurses a single wish: to leave behind the country of his birth and immigrate to the United States--the land where dreams come true.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring a haul to the Caucasus with a cargo of vodka intended for parched soldiers on the front line of the campaign against Chechnya, Leonid and his dim-witted sidekick take a wrong turn. They wind up in the center of the Chechen capital Grozny, at the height of one of the cruelest bombardments of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat follows will shock Leonid into confronting reality, from which he has always averted his gaze. His well-honed cynicism will be tested along with the survival skills he has accumulated over the years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA cult classic in the making, this short, biting debut is a heartfelt contemplation of how we engage with our worst instincts and--sometimes--rise above them. Amoral and hardened, even Leonid cannot fail to be moved by the events he witnesses, which will change him beyond recognition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Gonda \u003c\/b\u003eis a photographer, screenwriter, sometime journalist, and now a novelist. Although nominally based in Montreal, Canada, he currently resides all over the map.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49600177570065,"sku":"GOR007083129","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49621015855377,"sku":"GOR007025526","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1859641059.jpg?v=1750803235"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-peter-gonda.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}