Secondhand Time

The Last of the Soviets

By: Svetlana Alexievich, Bela Shayevich - translator

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin, Mark Bramhall, Cassandra Campbell, Kimberly Farr, Kirby Heyborne, Hillary Huber, Rebecca Lowman, Jorjeana Marie, Coleen Marlo, Kathleen McInerney, Fred Sanders

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A symphonic oral history about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a new Russia, from Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY • LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century

When the Swedish Academy awarded Svetlana Alexievich the Nobel Prize, it cited her for inventing “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions—a history of the soul.” Alexievich’s distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation.

In Secondhand Time, Alexievich chronicles the demise of communism. Everyday Russian citizens recount the past thirty years, showing us what life was like during the fall of the Soviet Union and what it’s like to live in the new Russia left in its wake. Through interviews spanning 1991 to 2012, Alexievich takes us behind the propaganda and contrived media accounts, giving us a panoramic portrait of contemporary Russia and Russians who still carry memories of oppression, terror, famine, massacres—but also of pride in their country, hope for the future, and a belief that everyone was working and fighting together to bring about a utopia. Here is an account of life in the aftermath of an idea so powerful it once dominated a third of the world.

A magnificent tapestry of the sorrows and triumphs of the human spirit woven by a master, Secondhand Time tells the stories that together make up the true history of a nation. “Through the voices of those who confided in her,” The Nation writes, “Alexievich tells us about human nature, about our dreams, our choices, about good and evil—in a word, about ourselves.”

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Financial Times, Kirkus Reviews

Read by a full cast:
Amanda Carlin
Mark Bramhall
Cassandra Campbell
Kimberly Farr
Kirby Heyborne
Hillary Huber
Rebecca Lowman
Jorjeana Marie
Coleen Marlo
Kathleen McInerney
Fred Sanders

Fascinating history of modern Russia

I see why the author won the Nobel prize. She interviews people with the most compelling stories, whose descriptions are vivid, moving and enlightening. She interviews family members with contrasting views, and she does not evaluate any of what they recount, she simply documents their experiences, puts them in an order that is powerful and revealing, And frequently follows up with more interviews years later. It’s her life’s work, one that is an objective,Painstaking labor of love. You won’t see Russia the same way.
The cast of readers is varied and talented.

Wow

Stunning and devastating all at once. A deeply, tragically important story that history must never forget.

Thought provoking!

I’ve always been fascinated by other countries and cultures. This is like listening to a diary of multiple generations woven into one cohesive narrative . Excellent narration.

Should be required listening!

Sad warning. I wish I could meet the people who shared their lives here, just so I could be kind to them. Thanks to Svetlana Alexievich for the work and to Bela Shayevich for translating.

What helped this audiobook work for me were the narrators. Flawless! I listen to perhaps 50 books each year—these women and men were chosen perfectly to narrate these hard stories.

My heart is for the sufferers of the USSR/formerUSSR. May God help you to find comfort, true peace, and genuine love.

What seems the real Russian and their true life experiences

A must read for any American criticizing our country and willing to install an authoritarian