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Pieter Waterdrinker
Pieter Waterdrinker (born 1961, Haarlem) is one of the most successful…
DiscoverPieter Waterdrinker at Cheltenham Literary Festival
It is 100 years since Russia emerged from civil war as the newly formed Soviet Union. The ‘Iron Curtain’ that later descended across Europe symbolised the divide between Western democracies and the eastern Soviet regimes. Timothy Phillips (The Curtain and the Wall) travelled the length of the Iron Curtain to find out how the legacy of the divide – physical, political and emotional – continues to be felt. In conversation with historian Sheila Fitzpatrick (The Shortest History of the Soviet Union) and Dutch novelist Pieter Waterdrinker (The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street), they reflect on what happened when the communist experiment came to an end. Chaired by The Sunday Times Europe Editor Peter Conradi.
For more information and to book your tickets visit the event website here.
The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street
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…
The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street
‘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…
