The Banner of the Passing Clouds
ABOUT
THE BOOK
The extraordinary narrator of The Banner of the Passing Clouds is born on the day Stalin dies and is given his name- Iosif Dzhugashvili -by a hospital official. He becomes convinced that Stalin has found a new dwelling place within his chest, a burden he both welcomes and fears.
In Iosif, Anthea Nicholson has created a unique and intriguing character: a victim of the Soviet Georgian regime which infiltrates his inner life, who is also complicit in its ideology and practices. Only when Iosif unwittingly destroys his family’s happiness is he forced to question his convictions and begin on the path to redemption.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A bittersweet account of the post-Stalistic Georgia as seen through the eyes of (and conscientiously recorded by) the namesake of the great dictator – acute, poignant, spot on.