The Life of an Unknown Man

Beautifully crafted and unashamedly romantic, building from an intimate love story something far more ambitious and universal - worthy of a place with the Russian greats. - Sunday Tasmanian'It reiterates the author's passionate attachment to Russia, and his determination to celebrate individual humanity while excoriating the oppressive politics that have shaped our present reality. - The Canberra TimesAndrei Makine is a Russian living in Paris and writing in French, but his great 19thcentury forebears are everywhere in this book. - The AgeMakine's laconic, sardonic portrait of the new Russia is laced with fury...a bold and eloquent novel - Helen Dunmore, GuardianMakine is a consummate literary artist, but he is teacher as well as storyteller and, best of all, enchanter - Allan Massie, ScotsmanSeamlessly translated by Geoffrey Strachan, Makine s novel explores the attempt of two ordinary people to transcend suffering and find life s essential meaning. It is difficult to write without sentimentality about such a subject, but Makine s intelligence and truthfulness dismiss banality. - Pamela Norris, Literary ReviewA powerful, thoughtful book about the reliability of memory and how time mutates the meaning of both literature and history. - Tina Jackson, MetroHis novels possess an eerie beauty invariably capable of surpassing the polemic...If he has an artistic kindred spirit it is most probably the South African Nobel laureate JM Coetzee - Eileen Battersby, Irish Times