Francis King
Living Legend
The Woman Who Waited
By Andreï Makine
Sceptre 182pp £12.99
The cunning of its layout – wide margins, generous print – cannot conceal the fact that, like so much of Andreï Makine’s fiction, this book is remarkably short. In its poetic conciseness, his work has always reminded me of the novellas that won Ivan Bunin the distinction, denied to Tolstoy and Chekhov, of becoming (in 1933) the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize. That Makine himself, a native Russian now writing in French, will one day win that prize is something that I have already predicted in print.
A certain type of woman, whose glamour, surviving into middle age, derives in part at least from her mystery, recurs in this author’s work. In what I regard as the finest of his novels, the remarkable Requiem for the East, we are introduced to the Frenchwoman Sasha. After the Revolution
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
‘In matters of the heart, cats are at the heart of the matter.’
So says @OSoden on the explosion of cat mania in the early twentieth century.
Oliver Soden - Pussies Galore
Oliver Soden: Pussies Galore - Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World by Kathryn Hughes
literaryreview.co.uk
A recent inquiry found that British security services had effectively licensed the IRA assassin known as Stakeknife to commit multiple murders.
@malodoherty picks apart the murky world of spying and counterespionage in Northern Ireland.
Malachi O’Doherty - Belfast Confidential
Malachi O’Doherty: Belfast Confidential - Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Espionage, Murder and Justice ...
literaryreview.co.uk
‘Creative non-fiction, I am so sick of this bullshit’, says Michael Anderson, an editor of the New York Times Book Review.
@rosalyster returns to its genesis.
Rosa Lyster - Two Sides to the Story
Rosa Lyster: Two Sides to the Story - The Fine Art of Literary Fist-Fighting: How a Bunch of Rabble Rousers, O...
literaryreview.co.uk