Andrei
Makine is a beautiful writer, a writer like no other I've read.
A big thank you to my old chum Linda for the tip. He can evoke
so much in so few pages - a century of Russian history (a subject
I didn't think I was that interested in any more), the Siberian
wastes, Stalin's excesses and the escape attempts therefrom -
historically, socially, personally; how it feels to love, to fear,
to be human. Done compellingly, with hardly a wasted word, and
always elegantly. Incredibly moving and liberating. A sense of
the despair but also of liberation, of flying (in one instance
from seeing a Belmondo movie). Not a lot of jokes, it has to be
said, but it's a long way from immersion in misery. Amazingly
he's a Russian emigre who writes in French. Critics cite Proust
and Nabakov but never mind about that. The book I liked least
is the one that made his reputation - the award winning 'Le testament
francais' - and also the longest. I'd recommend starting with
the staggering, astonishing, 'A life's music', 'Confessions' or
'Once upon the River Love'.
All his books are wonderfully (to be honest, how would I know? but it feels that way) translated into English by Geoffrey Strachan. Interestingly the publishers felt different titles were sometimes necessary for the UK and the USA, which can lead to confusion for the reader, so those differences are tabulated below in chronological order. In every instance I find the UK version of the titles superior.
1990
La fille d'un heros de l'Union Sovietique
A hero's daughter (2003)
1992
Confession d'un porte-drapeau
Confessions of a lapsed standard bearer (UK 2000)
Confessions of a fallen standard bearer (US 2000)
1994
Au temps du fleuve Amour
Once upon the River Love (1998)
1995
Le testament francais
Le testament francais (UK
1997)
Dreams of my Russian summers (US 1997)
1998
Le crime d'Olga Arbeyelina
The crime of Olga Arbyelina (1999)
2000
Requiem pour l'Est
Requiem for the east (UK
2001)
Requiem for a lost empire (US 2001)
2001
La musique d'une vie
A life's music (UK
2002)
The music of a life (US
2002)
2004
La terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme
The earth and sky of Jacques Dorme (2005)
2005
La femme qui attendait
The woman who waited (2006)
2006
L'amour
humain
Human love
(2008)
The bare bones of
a life from Hodder Headline's - his English publishers - website:
Andreï
Makine was born in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia in 1957, but sought
asylum in France in 1987. While initially sleeping rough in Paris
he was writing his first novel, A HERO'S DAUGHTER, which was eventually
published in 1990 after Makine pretended it had been translated
from the Russian, since no publisher believed he could have written
it in French. With his third novel, ONCE UPON A RIVER LOVE, he
was finally published as a 'French' writer, and with his fourth,
LE TESTAMENT FRANCAIS, he became the first author to win both
of France's top literary prizes, the Prix Goncourt and Prix Médicis.
Links: he's not exactly over-exposed on the web, though reviews of individual books are easy enough to find and not listed here.
Philip Delves Broughton's interview is the best I've found, in
the Telegraph, and can also be found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/28/1085641695300.html?from=storyrhs
(cut and paste it)
And these readers' guides from Penguin US are informative including
a Q&A author session:
Once
upon the River Love
Confessions
Crime
of Olga
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