Description
Book Synopsis‘As a writer, Carrère is straight berserk’ Junot Díaz
In this non-fiction novel – road trip, confession, and erotic tour de force – Emmanuel Carrère pursues two consuming obsessions: the disappearance of his grandfather amid suspicions that he was a Nazi collaborator in the Second World War; and a violently passionate affair with a woman that he loves but which ends in destruction. Moving between Paris and Kotelnich, a grisly post-Soviet town, Carrère weaves his story into a travelogue of a journey inward, travelling fearlessly into the depths of his tortured psyche.
Trade ReviewAn elegant, emotional self-examination, full of bleak but truthful insights about the lies and compromises of love * The Times *
This book is very much at the crossroads of writing-as-therapy and the sort of fact-fiction blurring that fans of WG Sebald and Geoff Dyer will appreciate * Independent *
Carrère brings the whole to sharp focus with a few jarring truths and a moment of great beauty. You leave its last pages with a deep appreciation for life * Washington Post *
Emmanuel Carrère has written a work of infinite sorrow, infernal jealousy, and violent passion.
My Life as a Russian Novel dazzles * Le Monde *
Brims with ideas and incidents... Gripping and fascinating, an intimate portrait of a complicated man's inner life and his struggles to find some kind of happiness and fulfilment * Guardian *
A captivating memoir that reads like a literary erotic-suspense novel * Boston Globe *
As a writer, Carrère is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on your when you attempt to pull away -- Junot Díaz
He's the best kind of writer, not just a bestseller but a man who is not afraid to leave the comfort zone of his desk, go out into the world, take risks, and get his shoes dirty * Observer *
Excoriating and forcefully intelligent -- Nat Segnit * Times Literary Supplement *
