Map of the Homeland

Petr Vail (1949–2009) is a well-known journalist and writer, one of the founders of the genre of Russian post-war essayism. He is the author of books “Genius of Place,” “Poems About Me,” and others. Also, together with A. Genis, he wrote “Native Speech,” “Russian Cuisine in Exile,” and more. Petr Vail emigrated from the USSR in 1977 and lived abroad until the end of his life. “The Map of the Homeland” is a collection of essays about his travels through the country in which he was born and which no longer exists.