In Memory of Memory

Subtitled A Romance, Stepanova uses her dead aunt's apartment full of ephemera to truly explore the romance of the mind, the memories that we leave behind, and the stories they tell. Far from a self-aggrandizing tale of one family's links to Russian history, this is a memoir that transparently performs that act of exploring one's ancestry and the personal threats involved therein. Enjoy this best as a bedtime book, checking in with Stepanova each night as she discovers one more surprising thing, then another, and perhaps just one more.