Andrew Nagorski, award-winning journalist and senior editor at Newsweek International, is a fan of Nina Khrushcheva’s Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics. When asked by the blog “Writers Read,” Nagorski said, “At a time when Putin’s Russia is once again claiming a special status and scorning the West and its concept of democracy, Nina Khrushcheva has written an extended meditation on one of that country’s great writers: Vladimir Nabokov…. Nabokov was a truly modern man, someone who offers a much-needed antidote to the increasingly narrow outlook of Russia’s current rulers.”

This book offers the original hypothesis that the novels of Russian-turned-American writer Vladimir Nabokov are highly relevant to the political transformation underway in Russia today. Nina Khrushcheva suggests that Nabokov’s fictional Western characters can be useful guides for acquiring new skills that the advent of democracy, capitalism, and open borders requires.

You may have seen Khrushcheva in her appearance on the Russia Today network yesterday, talking about the upcoming Russian elections. If you missed it, be sure to tune in to CBC Radio (Canada) on Feb. 29th. She will appear on As It Happens to discuss both the elections and Imagining Nabokov.

If you want to see Khrushcheva in person, then go to the New School on March 7th, where she’ll appear with Jack Matlock and Ian Buruma. For more information on that author event, click here.