{"title":"Pieter Waterdrinker","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"long-song-of-tchaikovsky-street-book-pieter-waterdrinker-9781912854073","title":"The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street","description":"‘History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.’   One day in 1988, an enigmatic priest knocks on Pieter Waterdrinker’s door with an unusual request: will he smuggle seven thousand bibles into the Soviet Union? Pieter agrees, and soon finds himself living in the midst of one of the biggest social and cultural revolutions of our time, working as a tour operator ... with a sideline in contraband.   Thirty years later, from his apartment on Tchaikovsky Street in Saint Petersburg, where he lives with his Russian wife and three cats, Pieter reflects on his personal history in the Soviet Union, as well as the century of revolutions that took place in and around his street. A master storyteller, he blends history with memoir to create an ode to the divided soul of Russia and an unputdownable account of his own struggles with life, literature, and love.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49520560472337,"sku":"GOR011976553","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49631895650577,"sku":"GOR012685223","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50698136486161,"sku":"NGR9781912854073","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51466534879505,"sku":"GOR014291713","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1912854074.jpg?v=1751431642"},{"product_id":"long-song-of-tchaikovsky-street-book-pieter-waterdrinker-9781912854462","title":"The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street","description":"A Daily Express Book of the Year   ‘Engrossing … grips you and doesn’t let go.’ The Spectator  ‘Waterdrinker’s gift for savage comedy and his war correspondent’s eye have few contemporary equivalents.’ The Times   A thrilling escapade through the Soviet Union of the ’90s and early 2000s by a tour guide turned smuggler turned novelist, that tells the unputdownable story of modern Russia.   One day, in 1988, a priest knocks on Pieter Waterdrinker’s door with an unusual request: will he smuggle seven thousand bibles into the Soviet Union? Pieter agrees, and soon finds himself living in the midst of one of the biggest social and cultural revolutions of our time, working as a tour operator ... with a sideline in contraband. During the next thirty years, he witnesses, and is sometimes part of, the seismic changes that transform Russia into the modern state we know it as today.   This riveting blend of memoir and history provides startling insight into the emergence of one of the world’s most powerful and dangerous countries, as well as telling a nail-biting, laugh-out-loud adventure story that will leave you on the edge of your seat.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49542838223121,"sku":"GOR013030488","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49745065115921,"sku":"NGR9781912854462","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53131156619537,"sku":"GOR014761370","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1912854465.jpg?v=1751419366"},{"product_id":"german-wedding-book-pieter-waterdrinker-9781843546382","title":"The German Wedding","description":"The 1950s, a gaudily decorated provincial hotel in an old-fashioned Dutch seaside resort, the evening before a wedding: with lies, misdemeanors and an oompah band all hiding in the wings, everything looks set to spin utterly, riotously out of control...  When Jacob and Maria roll out the red carpet to welcome their future family members, they spare no expense. Not to be outdone, Hans - the father of the bride - has brought his sausage factory's thirty-strong oompah band, The Fleshtones, all the way from Germany to lend his daughter's wedding a little extra je ne sais quoi. It's shaping up to be the party of the century!   But almost immediately the edifice begins to crumble. Ludo has caught the clap; Liza's bitchy, sex-addicted mother is lying about absolutely everything to absolutely everybody; and a shocking article in a local newspaper reveals that both Hans and Jacob are hiding very shady pasts...  Will the bride wise up? Is the groom going to be able to resist Betsy, the daughter of the disgraced local Dutch Nazi party leader? Can Kati get away with cavorting with the hotel doorman? Skeletons fly out of closets with reckless abandon as The German Wedding careens toward its dramatic denouement.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49589673623825,"sku":"GOR004202923","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50314160210193,"sku":"GOR013922690","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53613852098833,"sku":"GOR002554930","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1843546388.jpg?v=1774432531"},{"product_id":"long-song-of-tchaikovsky-street-book-pieter-waterdrinker-9781950354887","title":"The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1988, at the age of 26, Pieter Waterdrinker was at home in the Netherlands one day when a man knocked on his door and asked him to smuggle a shipment of bibles into the USSR. The resulting adventure would lead to a lifelong journey into Russia and its history.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWaterdrinker would eventually find himself living in Saint Petersburg, with his Russian wife and three cats, on a street which a hundred years earlier had been the epicentre of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street he tells its story, from the fall of the Tsar to the collapse of the USSR, blending history with memoir to create an ode to the divided soul of Russia and an unputdownable account of his own struggles with life, literature and love.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Words by Waterdrinker are as amazing as a superior circus.\"\u003cbr\u003e --\u003ci\u003eElsevier\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"How evocatively Waterdrinker can write! A hundred years after the Russian Revolution, he makes this violent period of history shine once again.\"\u003cbr\u003e --\u003ci\u003eZin\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50404545921297,"sku":"CIN1950354881G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51059196428561,"sku":"NIN9781950354887","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1950354881.jpg?v=1750770273"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-pieter-waterdrinker.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}