The Book of Happiness is one of the outstanding novels the great Russian writer Nina Berberova wrote during the years she lived in Paris, and the most autobiographical. "All Berberova's characters-including Berberova herself-live raw, unfurnished lives, in poverty, on the edge of cities, with little sense of belonging-except in moments of epiphany-to their time and in life itself" (The Observer). Such a character is Vera, the protagonist of The Book...