Strangecountry Studies: A Guidebook to Life Abroad

9 hrs. 34 min.

Miscellaneous

Language Russian

Author Evgeny Klyuyev

Narrator Sergey Kirsanov

Description

This is an entertaining guide to foreign countries— the way they might be if power in them had been seized by prankish linguists, who just can’t resist wordplay and clever plays on names. From this book you won’t learn anything about population figures in any given country, the territory it occupies, or the most important sights— that’s what any geography textbook will tell you.

Instead, you’ll get whispered in your ear that Canada was discovered by fearless Canado-walkers, Georgia is ruled by Ivan the Stout, people living outside France are called “zafrantses” (literally “over-Frenchers”), the Republic of Chad is inhabited by two completely different yet very friendly peoples—Chad and Household Members— and so on.

The book is designed with the author’s own illustrations—one per country—and in general it looks very colorful and festive—not like other textbooks.

To get true enjoyment from “Strangestudy,” you need, first, to have a special kind of mind, and second, not to transfer the book to that mind all at once, but gradually: for example, every morning to meet in company with a new country. And spend the whole day, humming its hymn, dressing in a costume of the colors of its national flag, and burning with true love for the citizens who live there.