In a snowbound railway station deep in the Soviet Union, a stranded passenger comes across an old man playing the piano in the dark, silent tears rolling down his cheeks. Once on the train to Moscow he begins to tell his story: a tale of loss, love and survival that movingly illustrates the strength[...]
Locked behind the Iron Curtain, a young boy grows up bewitched by his French grandmother's memories of Paris before the Great War. Yet despite what he also learns of her suffering in the Soviet Union under Stalin and during the Second World War, as an adolescent he finds himself proud to be a Russia[...]
As a child, Elias Almeida loses both his parents during the Angolan uprising against colonial rule. As an adult and professional revolutionary, he bears witness to mankind at its pitiless worst. Yet he continues to believe in a better world and in the redeeming power of love - even though he cannot [...]
Catherine the Great's life seems to have been made for the cinema. Countless love affairs and wild sexual escapades, betrayal, revenge, murder - there is no shortage of historical drama. But Oleg Erdmann, a young Russian filmmaker, seeks to discover and portray the real Catherine, her essential, emo[...]
A deeply moving meditation on memory, history, love, and art by the author of "Dreams of My Russian Summers" In "The Life of an Unknown Man," Andrei Makine explores what truly matters in life through the prism of Russia's past and present. Shutov, a disenchanted writer, revisits St. Petersburg after[...]
Every summer, young Andrei visits his grandmother, Charlotte Lemmonier, whom he loves dearly. In a dusty village overlooking the vast Russian steppes, she captivates her grandson and the other children of the village with wondrous tales--watching Proust play tennis in Neuilly, Tsar Nicholas II's vis[...]
Set in the Soviet Union from World War II until the early 1990s, " A Hero's Daughter" portrays the rise and decline of the Soviet Union through the story of Ivan Dimitrovich Davidov and his family. For his extraordinary bravery and courage beyond the call of duty at the Battle of Stalingrad, Ivan is[...]
Did sex bring down the Iron Curtain? An orphan reflects on the unbreakable bond between love and freedom in the Soviet Union...[...]
Toisin kuin Andreï Makinen romaanit yleensä, Vain rakkaus ei sijoitu kauas Ranskan tai Venäjän historiaan. Se kurkottaa Angolaan, 1970-luvulle maan itsenäistymisen vuosiin sekä kylmän sodan jälkeiseen aikaan 25 vuotta myöhemmin. Angolan poliittisten vaiheiden myötä romaani kuljettaa lukij[...]
Dimitri Ress on toisinajattelija, joka joutuu vankileirille; hän on runoilija, filosofi ja tuulimyllyjä vastaan taisteleva Don Quijote -hahmo. Hän on myös universaali kaiken kokija, jonka kohtaloa voisi mitata taistojen, unelmien ja kärsimyksen täyteisissä vuosissa. Minäkertoja, kirjan toine[...]