Andreï Makine

Andreï Makine (1957– ) is a Russian-born French author.

Biography

Makine was born in Krasnoyarsk, Soviet Union on September 10, 1957 and grew up in city of Penza, a provincial town about 440 miles south-east of Moscow. As a boy, having acquired familiarity with France and its language from his French-born grandmother (it is not certain whether Makine had a French grandmother; in later interviews he claimed to have learnt French from a friend), he wrote poems in both French and his native Russian.

In 1987, he went to France as member of teacher's exchange program and decided to stay. He was granted political asylum and was determined to make a living as a writer in French. However, Makine had to present his first manuscripts as translations from Russian to overcome publishers' skepticism that a newly arrived exile could write so fluently in a second language. After disappointing reactions to his first two novels, it took eight months to find a publisher for his fourth, "Le testament français". Finally published in 1995 in France, the novel became the first in history to win both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Medicis plus the Goncourt des Lycéens.

Translations

All of Makine's novels have been translated into English by Geoffrey Strachan.

"Le testament français" was published in English as "Dreams of My Russian Summers". It has also been translated into Russian by Yuliana Yahnina and Natalya Shakhovskaya, and first published in the 12th issue of the "Foreign Literature" ("Иностранная литература") literary magazine in 1996.

Bibliography

* "La fille d'un héros de l'Union soviétique", 1990, Robert Laffont ("A Hero's Daughter", 1996 ISBN 1559706872)
* "Confession d'un porte-drapeau déchu", 1992, Belfond ("Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer", 1996 ISBN 1559705299)
* "Au temps du fleuve Amour", 1994, Editions du Félin ("Once Upon the River Love", 1996 ISBN 1559704381)
* "Le Testament français", 1995, Mercure de France ("Dreams of My Russian Summers", 1997 ISBN 1559703830)
* "Le Crime d'Olga Arbelina", 1998, Mercure de France ("Crime of Olga Arbyelina", 2000 ISBN 1559704942)
* "Requiem pour l'Est", 2000, Mercure de France ("Requiem for a Lost Empire", 2001 ISBN 155970571X)
* "La Musique d'une vie", 2001, Éditions du Seuil ("A Life's Music", 2004 ISBN 1559706376; also published as "Music of a Life")
* "La Terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme", 2003, Mercure de France ("The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme", 2005 ISBN 1559707399)
* "La femme qui attendait", 2004, Éditions du Seuil ("The Woman Who Waited", 2005 ISBN 1559707747)
* "L'Amour humain", 2006, Éditions du Seuil (not yet translated)
* "Le Monde selon Gabriel", 2007, Éditions du Rocher (not yet translated)

ee also

* Allan Massie, a supporter of Makine.
* Murielle Lucie Clément [http://www.muriellelucieclement.com] , author of a PhD Thesis "Andreï Makine. Présence de l'absence: une poétique de l'art (photographie, cinéma, musique) and many articles on this author:

External links

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* [http://auteurs.contemporain.info/andrei-makine/ Critical bibliography (Auteurs.contemporain.info)] fr icon