We approach the yellow taxi stand at the airport’s exit at dawn. ‘How much to Yugo-Zapadnaya?’ my mother asks. 4,000 roubles. ‘Too much,’ my mother says. We back away.

Ahead of us, in the terminal, hustlers stand a couple of feet apart, scanning the crowd for foreigners that they can trick into taking an unlicensed cab.

Embrace Australia’s finest writers

Meanjin is open again for subscriptions! Thank you all for your patience as we’ve undertaken the transfer of the journal to its new home.

The next edition of Meanjin will be available from December 2026. Information on the purchase of single editions – in print or ePub formats – will be available closer to time.

To stay in touch with our latest news, please sign up here.

Your account

We Are Speaking in Code

Embrace Australia’s finest writers

Search Meanjin