The Merry Baker of Riga

By Boris Zemtzov

Mix one American expatriate, "inherited" managers, Soviet-trained bakers, and a Danish baking instructor with an Irish accent. Blend in the collapse of the Soviet legal system, derelicts that heave... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974711608
• ISBN13: 9780974711607
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Stanford Oak Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Wow! Very, very funny, and completely realistic!!!

I lived in Russia for 11 years, and never have I read someone that writes about experiences, so similar to mine, with such insight as to why things are the way they are, and with such hilarity. So many of the things he describes are really quite, quite sad and difficult to accept, and extremely exasperating for a foreigner to learn how to cope with. And yet, the author very cleverly uses humor, extreme patience, and vast empathy for the people for whom such living is the "Normalna" way to live, to persist beyond all reasonable intelligence in his very mad adventure. A very fun read! Particularly if you have spend any time in Russia or its former satellite nations.

Great Buy

The book I purchased was delivered to my house in great condition. It was if I had just bought the book at a book store.

One man's remarkable determination to succeed

The Merry Baker Of Riga: An American Entrepreneur Ventures Into Eastern Europe is the true story of an American expatriate who decided to establish a Western-style bakery in Latvia in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His run ins with language barriers, having to re-train Soviet-trained bakers, the threats of Russian mafia racketeers who menaced his business, culture shock, and much more fill the pages of this rousing travelogue and business tale filled with twists, turns, unexpected challenges and one man's remarkable determination to succeed.