{"title":"Books by Andreï Makine","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781914495458","title":"My Armenian Friend","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Powerful, poignant, perfectly-pitched . . . It's a short tale of great significance. I found it unforgettable. . . a fine piece of writing' Michael Palin\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this inspiring story, Andreï Makine looks back on a childhood friendship which changed his life. Set in 1970s Siberia, in the declining years of the Soviet Empire, \u003ci\u003eMy Armenian Friend\u003c\/i\u003e offers a poignant evocation of ordinary lives as well as a window into Makine's own evolution as a writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn an orphan school, a young Russian boy befriends Vardan, an Armenian child who, because mature and sensitive, is tormented by schoolyard bullies. When the Russian boy meets Vardan's Armenian family, he falls under their spell. In his eyes, their home is a kingdom transported from afar, which is adorned, aromatic, and beautiful despite how little the family possesses. Their neighbourhood is in a place of exile but is one of community, made up of former prisoners, exhausted adventurers and others who have been uprooted from their homes. As he grows closer to Vardan, the Russian boy learns to recognise a people forced indefinitely to live on the margins, but who, despite persecution, hold on to their culture and cherish the memories they have of their homeland and its history. Even in a brutally inhospitable Siberia, they recreate a transformative \"kingdom of Armenia\".\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205889392818,"sku":"9781914495458","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781914495458.jpg?v=1786030451"},{"product_id":"9780340837375","title":"The Woman Who Waited","description":"'Achingly beautiful' Guardian 'By turns touching and profoundly sad' SpectatorWhen a young, rebellious writer from Leningrad arrives in a remote Russian village to study local customs, one woman stands out: Vera, who has been waiting thirty years for her lover to return from the Second World War. As fascinated as he is appalled by the fruitless fidelity of this still beautiful woman, he sets out to win her affections. But the better he thinks he understands her the more she surprises him, and the more he gains uncomfortable insights into himself. Lyrically evoking the haunting beauty of the Archangel region, Makine tells a timeless story of the human heart and its capacity for enduring love, selfish passion and cowardly betrayal.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286692082037,"sku":"9780340837375","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780340837375_3ae55366-d716-480f-9895-1b2a9872e126.jpg?v=1786013408"},{"product_id":"9780340936412","title":"Le Testament Francais","description":"\u003cp\u003eLocked 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 Russian. Torn between the two cultures, he eventually makes a choice - which has a wholly unexpected outcome. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCapturing the powerful allure of illusion, this unforgettable novel traces a sentimental and intellectual journey that embraces the dramatic history of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56286708662645,"sku":"9780340936412","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780340936412_d62c469e-d379-4873-a192-4ba1b6258ea3.jpg?v=1786013627"},{"product_id":"9780857057945","title":"The Archipelago of Another Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A Siberian \u003ci\u003eHeart of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e\" Julian Barnes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the far eastern borders of the Soviet Union, in the sunset of Stalin's reign, soldiers are training for a war that could end all wars, for in the atomic age man has sown the seeds of his own destruction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Among them is Pavel Gartsev, a reservist. Orphaned, scarred by the last great war and unlucky in love, he is an instant victim for the apparatchiks and ambitious careerists who thrive within the Red Army's ranks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Assigned to a search party composed of regulars and reservists, charged with the recapture of an escaped prisoner from a nearby gulag, Gartsev finds himself one of an unlikely quintet of cynics, sadists and heroes, embarked on a challenging manhunt through the Siberian taiga.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  But the fugitive, capable, cunning and evidently at home in the depths of these vast forests, proves no easy prey. As the pursuit goes on, and the pursuers are struck by a shattering discovery, Gartsev confronts both the worst within himself and the tantalising prospect of another, totally different life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTranslated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295067844981,"sku":"9780857057945","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780857057945_04890c87-fabc-43ad-99fa-9ee241ec8fbc.jpg?v=1786016264"},{"product_id":"9781444700480","title":"The Life of an Unknown Man","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'It is impossible to exaggerate the power of this short, unbearably poignant novel.' \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A bold and elegant novel' Helen Dunmore,\u003ci\u003e Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003eA haunting story, beautifully told' Viv Groskop,\u003ci\u003e Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary story of love and endurance during the Siege of Leningrad lies at the heart of a magnificent novel about Russia past and present, and the human condition.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne night in St Petersburg, two men meet, both adrift in the brash new Russia: Shutov, a writer visiting after years of exile in Paris, and Volsky, an elderly survivor of the Siege of Leningrad and Stalin's purges. His life story - one of extreme suffering, courage and an extraordinary love - he considers unremarkable. To Shutov it is a revelation, the tale of an unsung hero that puts everything into perspective and suggests where true happiness lies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299610669429,"sku":"9781444700480","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781444700480_672dbe51-0e40-4b96-afd8-f78939d07b1b.jpg?v=1786020416"},{"product_id":"9781780870496","title":"Brief Loves That Live Forever","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn Soviet Russia the desire for freedom is also a desire for the freedom to love. Lovers live as outlaws, traitors to the collective spirit, and love is more intense when it feels like an act of resistance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow entering middle age, an orphan recalls the fleeting moments that have never left him - a scorching day in a blossoming orchard with a woman who loves another; a furtive, desperate affair in a Black Sea resort; the bunch of snowdrops a crippled childhood friend gave him to give to his lover.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the dreary Brezhnev era gives way to Perestroika and the fall of Communism, the orphan uncovers the truth behind the life of Dmitri Ress, whose tragic fate embodies the unbreakable bond between love and freedom.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303345369461,"sku":"9781780870496","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781780870496_fee3a752-3785-4c4e-9fa2-8e66dce9029b.jpg?v=1786025380"},{"product_id":"9780340820094","title":"A Life's Music","description":"\u003cp\u003e'A mini-masterpiece'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam Boyd, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Remarkable'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Unforgettable'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Prodigious'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Perfect'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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. 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Once on the train to Moscow, the man begins to tell his story: a tale of loss, love and survival, and the profound depths of human resilience.   .   'A very short novel that contains multitudes . . . profound, moving, haunting - full of resonances that are even more valid in today's fraught times'William Boyd, Guardian'A masterpiece, a novella to be read in a lunch hour and remembered for ever'Jilly Cooper, Sunday Telegraph","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503759171957,"sku":"9781399760140","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399760140.jpg?v=1786867470"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-andrei-makine.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}