Book review thread

[Banquo's Ghost]

I can heartily recommend the work of Andreï Makine for those of you who love lyrical storytelling.

My favourite of his novels is "The Woman Who Waited" a tragic love story that ranks with the best of Russian lyricism and lament. It is exquisite in the original French (Makine is a Russian who defected to France in the 80's) but the English translation is very good. If you love language and the human soul, you'll be captivated - there are sentences with imagery that simply stops you in your tracks to reflect. The evocation of the desolation of Siberia, and the hopelessness and indomitable spirit of the people that live there is moving beyond review.

His most famous work "Le testament français" is a marvellous exploration of childhood and best read with "La Terre et le ciel de Jacques Dorme" as a follow on. This latter is not a sequel, but bears many of the same themes, shaped within a touching love story set on the Russian front of the last war. Both are available in English translation.

I'd make a good pitch for another favourite author too, Arturo Pérez-Reverte. His "The Fencing Master" is one of the most erotic novels I have ever read, set in 19th century Spain with dark murder and intrigue and a femme fatale to die for. No sex or skin, just incredible swordplay, allusion and atmosphere.

Well worth chasing are "The Flanders Panel" a smart art-history whodunnit and "The Nautical Chart" a modern smuggler's adventure with an anti-heroine that I am still in love with after all these years, the elusive Tanger Soto. I wish my Spanish was good enough to read him in the original, but again the translations are excellent.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius

and

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer