A Russian Novel

An unsparingly truthful account of love, betrayal and the traps we set for ourselves

Set in Paris and Kotelnich, a small post-Soviet town, A Russian Novel traces Carrère's pursuit of two obsessions: the disappearance of his Russian grandfather and his fascination with a woman he loves but cannot keep from destroying.Elegant and passionate,A Russian Novel weaves the strands of Carrère's story into a travelogue of a journey inward. Road trip, confession, emotional tour de force, this fearless reckoning illuminates the schemes we devise to evade ourselves and the inevitable payment they exact as we discover we cannot, after all, escape our most fearsome and persistent adversary: yourself.

About the Author

Writer, scriptwriter and film producer Emmanuel Carrère was born in Paris in 1957. Much of his writing centeres around several primary themes: the interrogation of identity, the development of illusion and the direction of reality, like for instance inLa Classe de neige (Prix Femina 1995),La Moustache andL'Adversaire. Several of his books have been made into films; in 2005, he directed the film adaptation of his novelLa Moustache. Translations of his work have been published in thirty languages.

Reviews

'A description of two years in Carrère's life that brims with ideas and incidents, mingling a failed love affair, a series of journeys to a dismal town in Russia and an investigation into his grandfather's life and death', Guardian

'This book is very much at the crossroads of writing-as-therapy and the sort of fact-fiction blurring that fans of W G Sebald and Geoff Dyer will appreciate', Independent

'Impressive . . . Definitely a book to admire for its ambition', Metro

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