The plague struck the City of Florence in 1348. A contemporary poet and writer, Giovanni Boccaccio, imagined a group of fashionable young people fleeing the plague and spending a “lockdown” on an estate in the Tuscan countryside. They entertained themselves by telling stories. Of course, the tales were all written by Boccaccio himself and he published them in 1354 under the title The Decameron.
When the Covid-19 pandemic produced lockdown in Cape Town, author Stanislas M. Yassukovich decided to emulate this idea, and wrote a collection of over 20 stories which he circulated to a group of family and friends – all in lockdown in various parts of the world. These are the ones his first readers liked best.
Boccaccio’s Decameron contains some one hundred tales. This collection is more sparing of the reader – just as the Covid-19 pandemic has fortunately been more sparing than the 14th century Plague.
In this collection of short stories, Stanislas M. Yassukovich has indulged his taste for nostalgic reverie. The tales are inspired by the people and places the author has encountered during a lifetime spent in cosmopolitan circles. The quirks of fate that move people from an apparently predestined course of life have provoked his imagination. Stanislas has drawn on a variety of conditions and personalities to colour his stories with the shades and lights of human existence. Pursuing a distinguished career as an international investment banker, Stanislas found relief from the pressures of business by writing fiction. He makes no apology for the fact that his characters and their settings invoke past times; the joys and disappointments described are common to all humankind. The personages portrayed are mostly from privileged backgrounds – but then so is the author. Stanislas has sought to convey his own view of life’s vagaries through a stylistic prose which is itself reminiscent of writers of former times. The reader will find that the author’s evocations linger on.
This story of James Grant, his family and the class they belong to is not of our time. That class still exists and its prosperity is unabated. But its position in the American national psyche is greatly diminished, its glitter dulled by the passage of time – and a change in the mores of society as a whole. But I have written it because I believe the foibles of the human heart and its redeeming strengths possess a universality which overcomes the angst of changing times. I have set the stage in an unfamiliar time to mine. Whether my characters that stride upon that cluttered stage would remain credible in a stark, modern setting, I cannot judge. I had no one in particular in mind in devising them. They are as the ghosts that populate our dreams – a compendium of hints and reflections of those who have crossed our consciousness in the ill-remembered past.
Stanislas Yassukovich returns with another riveting collection of short stories, a worthy successor to his acclaimed Short Stories and A Cape Town Decameron. Each tale, woven from his vast experiences, spans an array of subjects, characters, and locales.
Drawing inspiration from his illustrious career as an international investment banker, Yassukovich gives readers a privileged peek into the intersections of finance, adventure, and the human spirit.
Every story offers a unique flavour, capturing varied moods and moments. Collectively, they paint a vivid tableau of a world both bygone and current, all anchored by enduring values. Dive in and journey through a life richly lived and brilliantly recounted.
Stanislas Yassukovich is an investment banker who spent some 20 years visiting and living with his family in the Luberon, the region of France made famous by the late Peter Mayle's seminal work, A Year in Provence. In his new book, Yassukovich chronicles his experiences, impressions and adventures in this unique corner of La Belle France, together with reminiscences of the fascinating and cosmopolitan characters who reside there permanently or part time. His anecdotal evocation of the great variety of elements that make this region one of the most sought after, in a country rich in holiday destinations, will entertain both those who know the area and those who don't yet. Malika Moine is a Provençal artist who has published several books of her water colours in Marseille. Her illustrations of the villages of the Luberon make the book, and the region, even more irresistible.
Dimitri Yassukovich is exiled by the Bolshevik Revolution, builds a new life and career as a Wall Street investment banker, and lays the foundations in Europe for one of the great investment banking houses of the City. His son Stanislas, after an inglorious youth in the Gatsby land of Long Island, joins his father's firm White, Weld & Co., finds himself at the epicentre of the City's revival from postwar doldrums, and becomes an architect of the Euromarkets.
His highly personal and anecdotal chronicle of these two lives leads us through the history of high finance and its revival, and the heady days of the internationalisation of the City, through the ‘Big Bang' and its aftermath.
Two Lives is a serious, and yet light-hearted account of a critical period in 20th century finance and of two unusual personalities.
My collection of short stories, A Cape Town Decameron, was reviewed by Anthony__ on Online Book Club. “Readers will be impacted positively by reading this book”, says the reviewer. Read the complet ........
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