Le Testament Francais - Softcover

Makine, Andreļ; Makine, Andrei

Softcover

ISBN 10: 034068206X ISBN 13: 9780340682067

Publisher: Sceptre, 1997

Synopsis

On the edge of the Siberian steppes, a young boy grows up listening to his French grandmother's stories of France just before the Great War - a nostalgic portrait of a vanished world, but a bewitching one during the Soviet regime. Gradually the story emerges of his grandmother's subsequent life in Russia, through the horrors of the revolution and World War II. Torn between two cultures, he eventually leaves after the fall of the Berlin Wall for Paris, and discovers how far his imagination led him from reality. But he stays, until a letter arrives containing an astonishing revelation.

About this title

Review:

A superb novel about fantasy and reality ... It is Makine's achievement to convey the essential, with economy, grace and beauty (Scotsman)

'The first book ever to win both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Médicis, and it deserves them ... an astounding book ...
Great literature, necessary and profound ... we inhabit the narrator's mind more intensely than any boy's mind since Marcel's in A le recherche du temps perdu''
Carole Angier, Independent

'Le Testament Franēais is the story of a boy's awakening in two parallel worlds: the Soviet Union of the Stalinist era and a mysterious, Atlantis-like country, created by a near-alchemical process from old photographs and newspaper clippings, and the memories and anecdotes his grandmother tells on the long Siberian nights of the school holidays. The grandmother, Charlotte, is a woman of French origins. She is a natural storyteller whose imagination has helped her survive, like Scheherazade, through difficult times ... A superb novel about fantasy and reality ... it is Makine's achievement to convey the essential, with economy, grace and beauty'
Scotsman

Great literature, necessary and profound ... We inhabit the narrator's mind more intensely than any boy's mind since Marcel's in a A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU (Independent)

'Once in a while, there comes a book that captivates critics and public alike. Andreļ Makine's autobiographical novel is such a book ... Its subtle blend of memory and imagination is reminiscent of Proust ... But in its broad sweep and mystical vision, Le Testament Franēais belongs to the tradition of the 19th-century Russian novelists'
Susha Guppy, Independent on Sunday

He communicates brilliantly the exquisite agony of nostalgia (Literary Review)

'He communicates brilliantly the exquisite agony of nostalgia'
Frances Welch, Literary Review

Beautifully written ... A deceptively profound novel. Makine's wonderful economy of image and phrase convey far more than one could think possible about the Russian soul (Daily Telegraph)

'Superb ... one of the many fascinating facets of this sad, beautiful, old-world novel, which has echoes of Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes, is its merging of contemporary French fiction with the 19th-century Russian novel'
Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'Beautifully written ... a deceptively profound novel. Makine's wonderful economy of image and phrase convey far more than one could think possible about the turbulent Russian soul'
Antony Beevor, Daily Telegraph

Book Description:

The first novel to win both the Prix Goncourt and Prix Médicis, by a Russian emigré - a stunning tale of a Soviet boy's love affair with the West, as portrayed by his enigmatic French grandmother.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 034068206X
• ISBN 13: 9780340682067
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288