The Crime of Olga Arbyelina - Softcover

Makine, Andrei

3.44

492 ratings by Goodreads

9780140298420: The Crime of Olga Arbyelina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140298428 ISBN 13: 9780140298420

Publisher: Penguin, 2001

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Olga Arbyelina--a rumored Russian princess, refugee from the Bolsheviks, and abandoned wife--is found half-naked on the riverbank, next to the body of a man who mysteriously drowned, in a new novel by the critically acclaimed author of Dreams of My Russian Summers. Reader's Guide included. Reprint.

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Review:

'Beautifully observed and lyrically exptressed, the novel slowly ... pieces together the mosaic of Olga's inner life as she begins to lose her mind. Returning obsessively to the tiny details of domestic life, the creak of a door, the gap in the curtains and the texture of the surface of a cup the effect is hauntingly claustophobic. But the greatest achievement is in the portrayal of Olga's son, a nameless youth with translucent skin and blood that will not clot, whose spectral presence is sensed, but never captured, in this tragic story of misplaced erotic love.'
Natasha Fairweather, The Times, August 99

Beautifully observed and lyrically expressed, the novel slowly ... A tragic story of misplaced erotic love (The Times)

'Though his blend of memory and imagination has won him comparison with Proust, his broad sweep and mystical vision, his emotional intensity and lyrical elan...belong to the tradition of nineteenth-century Russian novelists.'
Shusha Guppy, The Independent 24.7.99

Though his blend of memory and imagination has won him comparison with Proust, his broad sweep and mystical vision, his emotional intensity and lyrical elan ... belong to the tradition of nineteenth-century Russian novelists (Independent)

Intriguing ... meticulous, lyrical prose ... he charges space with tension and the inanimate with meaning ... Makine deserves our full attention (The Sunday Times)

'this is an intriguing novel about a Russian immigrant woman who lives in a small French town with her only son just after the second word war...the novel is neatly framed....Makine's meticulous, lyrical prose- served well by this sensitive translation- is all the more impressive because his first language is Russian (he writes in French)....he charges space with tension and the inanimate with meaning until the curtain rings are sinister, the position of a shoe is shocking and a lamp base causes a significant turning-point....Makine deserves our full attention, he exerts impressive control over these themes, hops back and forwards through time with ease, and ultimately neverforgets the value of a simple and compelling story.'
Lucy Atkins, The Sunday Times

An elaborately haunting work ...Olga's involuted, tormented conciousness becomes a sophisticated pleasure in its own right ... Makine's novel possesses the feverish beauty of a hot-house culture in its final efflorescence (Publishers Weekly)

'The intricate thoughts and fears of a Russian emigre mother take center stage in this elaborately haunting work...Olga's involuted, tormented conciousness becomes a sophisticated pleasure in its own right...That same consciousness, and the events that destroy it, invoke larger mythic patterns- Cupid and Psyche, Beauty and the Beast. Makine's novel possesses the feverish beauty ofa hot-house culture in its final efflorescence.'
Publishers Weekly, 26.7.99

Structured like a crime novel, but told in the language of a poet... It's a thrilling book, lit with the soft light of despair, withpassages which should shock but whose style caresses, melting this scandalous story into a captivating melody. The readers of "Le Testament Francais" will rediscover in "Olga Arbelina's crime" Andrei Makine's beautiful and supple writing, his relish for the waking dream.' (FIGARO LITTERAIRE)

Book Description:

The stunning new novel by the author of the international bestseller Le Testament Fran�ais, a dramatic, sensuous tale set in a Russian emigr� community in post-war France.

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